Clipped Wings
by Jade-Max
Summary: Tommy is watching the Pan Globals as Kim performs. Challenge Fic - now a short story. Complete
1. Chapter 1

June 2008

**Title: Clipped Wings**

**Author:** **JadeMax**

**Rating: ** T

**Disclaimer:** Power Rangers and their affiliates belong to Disney and are used without permission and no money is being made off of this. I'm simply destroying the sandcastles in their sandbox

**Author Notes:** My thanks to Cathy for letting me adopt this adorable little plot bunny and take it home! It er.. turned into something of a monster ficlet hangs head sheepishly

**Teh Bunny****: **

**Challenge One - Post 'The Letter' – Ficlet**

Story Type: Short Fic (could be made into a longer piece -your choice) - POV  
Timeline: Post 'the letter'.  
Rating: PG

Tommy is watching the Pan Globals as Kim performs. He sees the leotard Kim's wearing; either white with green and pink accents (in honor of TommyPerhaps she could have a pink crane and green (since the leotard is white already) falcon in flight -she had it specially made. OR White with one red, yellow, blue, pink, black and green stripe (in honor of the PR team in general). You can come up with something of your own, as long as it's something that would have some meaning to her friends (Tommy specifically) back home.

What are his feelings on it? Is he happy (_She does still love me?_) or angry (cuz of the letter in general). What does he do about it?

--

**Clipped Wings**

Tommy was late.

While that was nothing new, the other Rangers hadn't expected it for that particular day; they'd gathered at Billy's house to watch Kimberly participate in the Pan Global tournament she'd left to train for over a year ago and surrendered her powers to Katherine.

It was spring again in Angel Grove, almost a year to the day since Kimberly had left to follow her dream. And while there had been much that had happened in that time - new powers, new friends, new Rangers - the most shocking of it all had been Kimberly's breakup - by letter - with Tommy. He'd obviously been hurt - who wouldn't have been? - but from what the rest of the Rangers had been able to tell he hadn't let it affect his performance as a Ranger.

If anything, it had spurred him on, focused him - forced him to become a better Power Ranger and leader.

It was all an act.

Of late it had begun to show. Tommy become more forgetful and seemed to space out at the oddest times. Of course, this was the hardest time of year for all of them - finals were coming up, school was ramping up for the big tests, but there was more to it than that for Tommy. This time of year had been when Lord Zedd had focused on Kimberly to eliminate her as a Power Ranger and, in a way, succeeded. This was also the time of year it had been when his own Powers as the Green Ranger had begun to wane, eventually disappearing entirely.

It was also the time when Kimberly had first agreed to be his date to the dance, when they'd shared their first kiss - and when they'd loaded her onto a plane for Miami almost two years later to chase her dream.

Spring was not a time of good memories for one Tommy Oliver.

Billy attempted to call the Oliver house but there was no answer and, eventually, he and the other Rangers settled in to watch without their leader.

--

Tommy hadn't heard the phone.

Oh, he knew Billy and the others were waiting for him to join them. He knew they were waiting so they could watch the Pan Globals as a group - but he couldn't bring himself to go. Couldn't imagine watching Kimberly - his Beautiful - reach for her dream with the rest of them.

Sure, he intended to watch - even her letter hadn't changed that - but he couldn't bring himself to do it with the rest of the guys. Knowing they were worrying about him would have dampened his excitement and enjoyment just as it would have theirs. Sure, his absence would still concern them, but this way he would be free to indulge in a little harmless Kimberly watching without having everyone watching _him._

They meant well, but they didn't and couldn't understand.

Flicking on the TV, Tommy settled onto the floor in front of the couch, bending one knee and resting his forearm on it as the announcers for the games began to talk about the athletes and their competition order. Behind them, the gymnasts warmed up, stretching as they prepared for the vigorous workout they were about to put their bodies through. Many were in their competition leotards; others were still wrapped in their warm-up wrappers.

Kimberly wasn't on screen behind the announcers and it took little more than a cursory glance for Tommy to know it. He'd know how she moved anywhere - and she wasn't one of those gymnasts.

"...berly Hart is the Cinderella story of these games, Mike."

Tommy's attention was caught by the announcers and he tuned back in as they discussed Kimberly.

"You're telling me, Stan. A nobody less than a year ago, Kimberly's been a rising star and a very real contender for the gold at these games. Most of her opponents, like Michelle Nigura, have been gymnasts for years, training under coaches with this as their goal."

"True, but Ms. Hart's abilities to hold up under this kind of pressure is phenomenal."

"Not if you know her," Tommy told the announcer with a proud grin. Despite the ache in his heart, listening to the announcers was like listening to his friends talk about her. The same strength of spirit and heart were in everything she did. His smile faded - except their long-distance relationship.

Clearing his throat, he pushed to his feet and headed for the stairs leading up to the kitchen to retrieve a glass of water before the actual events started. There were four - vault, uneven bars, beam and floor. Kimberly was slated as first of fifteen, fifth of twelve, last of twenty and eighteen of twenty respectively, and he didn't want to miss a minute.

Collecting a box of crackers and a bottle of juice - his mother could yell at him later - Tommy returned to the basement in time to watch the second of five commercials. He used the time to brace himself for seeing Kim again. It wasn't going to be easy. He hadn't seen anything but her picture since she'd sent that letter and her smile - directed at him or not - had always had the power to affect him deeply.

The announcers returned and Tommy muted the sound, focusing instead on the area behind them as it panned and focused in on the vault that would be used for the first event. The lights around the location dimmed, casting the surroundings into shadow, and a movement on the edge of it caught his eye as he hit the mute button to regain the sound.

"... easy place to be in any competition, but to be the rookie and compete first out of anyone is especially hard."

"You said it Mike, but Kimberly's shown none of the nerves that most of the other rookies to these games have in the last week. For someone as young and talented, but new to this level of competition, her poise has been incredible."

"Not just her poise, but her whole attitude."

The camera panned back to the vault area as the announcer made a comment about Kimberly's past performances on the vault in practice and Tommy ignored them. He knew well that the vault was the least favorite of Kim's events - she'd always had to push herself to practice it - but he also knew how good she could be when focused. The cut away to the gymnasium floor included the echo of Kimberly's name as it was announced, as well as the name of her coach and school.

His attention was caught and held by a shadowed individual at the edge of the mat who was shrugging out of her warm-up wrap. A glitter of gold and silver caught his attention as she shifted, but without seeing her face he knew it to be Kim. Her head nodded towards a darker shadow - her coach? - and, squaring her shoulders, she stepped into the light.

A kick below the belt would have had less of an impact at that moment than the smile on Kimberly's face. It was animated, so full of confidence and determination it was like a physical wound. Tommy had believed he'd been ready to see her - even vicariously - but the force of her image as it penetrated his retina reverberated through his system like the aftershocks of a gong strike. A sick sensation careened through his stomach making his head spin for a fraction of a second before his vision cleared and he was no longer seeing two of her. Unthinkingly, he reached towards her, the need to touch her an almost overwhelming urge.

The camera suddenly shifted its angle and brought him back to his senses as her gaze no longer seemed to look straight through the camera, but was shown to be narrowed with intent focus on the stretch of floor before her.

His hand clenched and he dropped it swiftly, his forearm resting once again on his knee as he was unable to tear his gaze from her expression. This was the Kimberly he knew; the determined, beautiful, courageous young woman who'd battled at his side for two and a half years. The young woman who'd fought with him and against him and never once given up on him - until she'd moved across the country.

Already just seeing her - even knowing she was miles away - was twisting his insides in knots.

Panning away from her face, the camera broke his view of her face and he came up off the floor in shock, moving towards the television before he consciously thought about it. Kimberly's leotard was... was...

"-something else, Stan. What's the story behind Coach Schmidt's allowance for it?"

"Rumor has it she made it herself Mike, some kind of tribute to those who helped her achieve her dream."

A tribute.

Tommy registered the words in the rational part of his brain, but the irrational part wasn't listening. It was focused solely on the young woman standing proudly, her arms outstretched to her sides as she eyed the vault runway and mentally reviewed what she needed to do to get there.

Unable to help himself, Tommy's gaze traveled over the form-fitting garment. There'd been a reason he'd worn a shirt tied about his waist or left un-tucked through high school - and a shift in the weather wasn't it; she was standing before him on the television, steadying herself for what she had to do.

Swallowing the lump that had stuck in a throat suddenly gone dry, he visually traced the designs on the upper half of her leotard.

The white base - as was required by Coach Schmidt's academy - wasn't what held his attention. Instead, it was the white, gold and silver thread that adorned the back of the material, intricately crisscrossing the back of her uniform about the numbered patch in the center. The thread worked its way outward and down each of the arms, woven to look like feathers from wings. Wings that looked suspiciously like...

Falcon wings.

There was no way.

Yet, Tommy couldn't deny the evidence of his senses. The longer he looked, the more sure he became; the wings stitched across Kimberly's leotard looked almost _exactly_ like those his Falcon Zord had sported.

The camera panned away again, this time towards her front as Kimberly lowered her hands, taking a deep breath, and then began to sprint towards the vault. It was kept at such an angle that the front of her uniform wasn't as easily seen as the back had been, but there was a kaleidoscope of colors: White, pink and green all mixed together as she sprinted and tumbled, a blur of color. A splash of red, a hint of yellow and blue, but predominantly green, white and pink.

She sailed through the air, as graceful as the Ninjetti crane that was her spirit animal, spinning and twisting in the fantastic feats of gravity defiance that were common to gymnastics and landed, hopping slightly before sticking the landing. Not perfect, but not bad either. Once she had her balance, her arms came up and she straightened, taking her final position.

And the air left his lungs again.

The center of Kim's breast held something he'd never expected to see. The images of a crane and a falcon - they couldn't be anything else - entwined in flight were flanked on all sides by a multicolored box. The crane and the falcon, entwined in a dive - what some might mistake as a mating flight - and what he only knew as a mating flight after he'd discovered the falcon wasn't only his spirit animal, but his totem as well. Black, red, yellow and blue lines encased the entwined birds in a diamond, lending the scene an elegance it might otherwise not have. The front of her arms sported wings, the same as the back - but done in pink, black and gold thread - a clear homage to her spirit animal.

Numbness washed over him as she stepped from the light, taking the incredible sight of her leotard with her. Pain sprouted through his spine as he fell back against the couch, seeming to deflate as Kimberly disappeared from view, and he paid no attention to her scores. He'd collapsed, as if unable to support his posture, and bashed his back against the edge of the sofa. The dull throb was a welcome sensation compared to the tightness in his gut and the sudden lightheadedness that threatened to overwhelm him.

What did it mean?

Did it mean anything at all?

A tribute, the announcer had said, but that had only been a rumor. Was there something more to it? Something more that he was supposed to see? He rubbed his hands over his face, letting his head fall back against the cushions of the sofa to stare blankly at the ceiling, the murmur of the announcer's voices having long ago faded to a background rumble.

What did Kimberly's leotard signify?

Flight? Probably. There was no other reason to have wings on an outfit than to think of flying. It fit; her spirit animal was one who couldn't be caged and needed the freedom of flight. It was the embodiment of everything Kimberly was - grace and poise - and everything she strove to become. So why plaster it all over her Pan Global uniform?

The announcer had said she'd made it herself, so the images were deliberate. This was no fluke, no chance image; Kimberly's choices had been deliberate.

He missed the ringing of the phone again - several times - and the only thought he spared the other Rangers was the relief that he didn't have to sit through their platitudes.

Tommy was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he completely missed Kimberly's uneven bar routine and barely caught her on the balance beam - but even then it was at a great distraction. Through the latter she looked like she was flying, bending or diving, the emphasized lines of her arms seeming that much more graceful for their symbolism.

Again he missed how she scored, the confidence in her bearing more confusing than it was reassuring. Was the suit a message or was it simply a way to re-enforce her self-esteem?

The announcers continued to prattle onwards, but Tommy paid them no mind. Since receiving Kim's letter, he'd run the gambit of emotions. Denial, anger, hurt, disbelief, and even hope. But nothing had affected him quite like seeing her as he could now.

Spellbound, his mind turning the possibilities over and over, he watched her perform on the beam. It was a routine he didn't know, one he'd never seen her perform, and probably the most technically demanding routine he'd even laid eyes on. She sailed through it seemingly effortlessly. Only after her dismount did he truly understand the level of concentration for she lifted ecstatic eyes to the crowd and punched her fist in the air - and they responded.

Kimberly had nailed a practically flawless beam routine.

He wanted to cheer with her - so he did. There was nobody home to hear him, and even if there had been it wouldn't have mattered. She deserved it; she'd worked so hard for it and now it was within her grasp. Only the floor routine stood between her and the Pan Global gold.

"Go Kim! That's my girl - show them what you can do, Beautif-!" He cut himself off, her nickname like a brand on his tongue. It burned, painfully twisting about inside him as he realized that not only couldn't she hear him, but - for the first time - it truly sank in she was no longer his to have.

She was no longer _his_.

A crushing, suffocating sensation squeezed his chest, making it ache and robbing him of whatever breath he had left even as the emblem on her leotard mocked him. He struggled against the sinking sensation that threatened to overpower him, dragging him down. The anger had fled after its first appearance several weeks back and never resurfaced. He couldn't - and wouldn't - hold a grudge against Kimberly, but that didn't make bearing the pain of her betrayal any easier.

And now this.

"Are you trying to tell me something, Kim?" His agonized question barely passed his lips - not that it mattered; she couldn't hear him. There was a slight ringing in his ears - the echo of the telephone - but he couldn't have answered it if he'd tried. Too many questions, too many emotions ricocheted around inside his head and heart for him to make sense of them. "Or do you just delight in torturing me?"

Kimberly's smiling face disappeared from the television screen and the spell was broken, allowing his head to drop back once more. A tortured groan escaped from his lips as he clenched his hands, seeking the control that was so intuitive to his normal state of mind. The discipline that was as much a part of him as breathing.

It was slow, but gradually he was able to reassert some control over what he was feeling. Organize it? Hell no, but clamp down on it and force it to stop controlling him - that was something he could do. So he did it. Staring at the ceiling of his parent's basement, he stared with one agonized half-breath, forcing his lungs to contract.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

Another breath, and then another as the panic welling within him subsided. Panic? That wasn't like him. Even when Kim's letter had originally come, he'd never panicked. Felt numb? Yes. Confused? Certainly. Who wouldn't've? But panic? Never had he felt so out of control - not since Lord Zedd had captured Kimberly and tried to drain her powers.

Lifting his head, he stared at the commercial, scrutinizing it, trying to see beyond it, back to the gymnasium - back to Kimberly. Her leotard had to have some significance, otherwise she wouldn't be wearing it and never would have created it. The creation would also have been a recent thing - likely since sending the letter - since he couldn't honestly see her having started it months ago and continuing with it if she no longer cared.

Was it her way of saying she wanted to be friends? That the offer in her letter was an open invitation if he would simply reach out and grab it? Or were the intertwined symbols of their spirit animals a different sign all together? One that said she'd never stopped caring about him, never stopped believing him to be her other half?

He didn't know.

Calmer, but not by much, he heard the phone ring this time and made a conscious decision to ignore it. If the Rangers really wanted-

His communicator beeped and his lips twisted into a sour smile. It was a sound he couldn't ignore and one he didn't dare refuse. "Tommy here."

"Tommy, it's Billy. Where are you - you're missing the show!"

"I'm at my place, Billy."

There was silence at the other end and then. "Would you like some company?"

"If I did, I'd be with you guys."

"Are you sure?" Tanya cut in skeptically.

"Thanks, but I'm better off here on my own. Gotta run - the floor presentations are about to start."

They were cut off as Tommy ended the call, turning his attention back to the floor routines. Mainly styles without music flowed from one to another, but some daring competitors chose songs with lyrics to tumble across the mat. Classical to rock to dance spilled from the speakers until finally, his patience tried, Kimberly stepped up to the mat. Her white leotard shot through with gold and silver threads glittered under the lights as she took up her starting position.

The voiceover of the announcer faded to the background as the name of the song she'd chosen flashed on the screen. "What's Left of Me" by Nick Lachey.

Silence filled the arena and Tommy leaned forward as Kim extended her arms and legs, looking all the world like a bird about to take flight as she waited for the song to begin. The opening tones brought with it a gentle movement of her hands first, followed by the undulation of her arms, her body and finally her legs as she moved into the music, seeming to lose herself in the lyrics - and as she was absorbed, so was Tommy and the lyrics washed over him...

"Watch my life pass me by

In the rearview mirror

Pictures frozen in time

Are becoming clearer

I don't wanna waste another day

Stuck in the shadow of my mistake.

'Cause I want you,

And I feel you

Crawling underneath my skin

Like a hunger

Like a burning

To find a place I've never been

Now I'm broken

And I'm faded

I'm half the man I thought I would be

But you can have

What's left of me.

I've been dying inside

Little by little

Nowhere to go

But going out of my mind

In Endless circled

Running from myself until

You gave me a reason for standing still

Every word seemed to pound across the speakers, Kimberly's movements a poignant expression of both lyrical and musical interpretation as she tumbled the second of several routines across the mat. Tommy's throat had closed upon listening to the lyrics of the song Kim had chosen. A song that he'd never heard before - but perfectly described what he felt like since getting her awful letter.

'Cause I want you, and I feel you

Crawling underneath my skin

Like a hunger, like a burning

To find a place I've never been

Now I'm broken, and I'm faded

I'm half the man I thought I would be

But you can have,

What's left of me.

Falling faster, barely breathing

Give me something to believe in

Tell me it's not all in my head."

Kimberly tumbled through the bridge of the song, a spectacular show of strength and stamina as she not only completed the tumble but then threw herself into an almost impossible backwards tumble routine of the same, only a complete reverse of what she'd just done. Backwards flips, reverse cartwheels, she gave it her all as she launched into a backwards handspring series completely with a reverse double twist as she nailed the landing.

"Take what's left of this man

Make me whole once again

'Cause I want you

And I feel you

Crawling underneath my skin

A hunger, like a burning

To find a place I've never been

Now I'm broken and I'm faded

I'm half the man I thought I would be

But you can have

All that's left

(yeah, yeah yeah)

What's left of me.

I've been dying inside you see

Going out of my mind,

Out of my mind

I'm just running in circles all the time

Way to take what's left

Way to take what's left

Way to take what's left

just running in circles all the time

Way to take what's left

Way to take what's left

Way to take what's left

Take what's left of me."

The routine ended with a flourish, Kimberly gracefully falling backwards into a controlled backwards somersault and continuing through it into a half-roll which ended with her legs being extended into the air, her arms flat out at her sides as if in supplication. The pose was a mimicry of her opening stance and one that made her appear as if some great bird had crashed into the mat. The music faded as she assumed her final pose, silence descending over the area for a pair of heartbeats before applause exploded like a gunshot

And through it all, Tommy couldn't look away.

Regaining her feet gracefully, Kimberly turned towards the camera that was closest to the mat and stared right at it. The angle shifted, going directly to that camera - it wasn't uncommon for athletes to wave or give kisses, mouthing words to loved ones back home. No sound, no waves and no mimicked kisses were forthcoming; instead, Kimberly did something as unique as her costume.

She signed, using the very sing language she'd once taught him. Not just any signs, but gestures Tommy recognized - and ones he would never, ever forget. It was done quickly, but deliberately with tears in her eyes before she paused, smiled and turned to the crowd with a wave.

Stunned for the umpteenth time that day, he couldn't tear his gaze away from where Kimberly was doing a cute little curtsey to the crowd before darting off the mat. Again her scores failed to register, the pounding of his heart once again echoing in his head.

_"I miss you, Handsome."_

Four little gestures, containing the three little words that had brought them together before and the echo of his pet name for her in her pet name for him - words that, in some ways, personified their relationship. But in those gestures, Tommy got his answer. Kimberly's outfit, her embroidery, the designs and symbols - all of them had been a message he didn't understand.

A message he _still_ didn't understand, but one he intended to.

Despite the hurt he'd been through in the weeks following Kimberly's letter, despite the upheaval and the pain, he couldn't face his life without her in it in some way. Their split, the silence due to separation, ate at him almost as much as the unknown cause behind it. A cause he'd been too afraid to try and discover lest she say the hurtful things in the letter to him in her beautiful voice. Words on a printed page he could handle - the contents of that letter coming directly from her lips would kill him.

Through the marks and following final floor routines he wrestled with his conscience. Did he dare call her? Obviously not right at that moment - she was in the middle of living the dream they'd urged her to follow - but later? He had her phone number at the dorm where she stayed with her coach, but he didn't know her itinerary. Through the final marks, he tilted his head back, completely missing the standings as he stared at the roof of the basement once more.

He knew what he should be feeling - and he knew what he was feeling. Like a yo-yo, the favored children's toy which delighted them by going down towards the ground at an alarming speed and then back towards the hand. That was how he felt - or perhaps taffy was a better analogy... pulled in several directions at once. He didn't know what to feel.

But Kimberly's message - her unspoken, blatantly obvious physical one and the subliminal one that called to him through her clothing and choice of routines were things he couldn't ignore. She _wanted_ him to contact her. He didn't know why, but her signed message compelled him to action the way her clothing and routines never would have.

It amounted to a cry for help and he'd never been able to resist being her White Knight - even if he now wore red. Somehow, someway, he was going to get in touch with her and he was going to do it now.

Pushing up from the floor, he didn't spare the television so much as a glance as he stormed upstairs to grab the phone. Quickly checking the brochure that Kimberly had sent - Billy, bless his heart, had ensured Tommy had one - Tommy dialed the number for the building where the event was being held, he waited as the line rang.

And rang.

And rang.

A harried operator picked up and immediately asked if he could hold. Tommy bit back an impatient "no" and told her that of course he could. Never mind that this was a long distance call - no matter the cost, he had to get to Kim and he had to do it now. He had to let her know that he'd seen her and her message; that he understood - even when he didn't. If nothing else, she could call him back.

It took ten minutes on hold before another operator picked up and Tommy was almost at his wit's end. "I have a message for Kimberly Hart."

"You and dozens of others, sir."

Biting back the impolite urge to snap, Tommy took a deep breath. "It's important and it has to do with when she was looking at the camera at the end of her floor routine."

There was silence on the other end for several long second and then; "What's your message sir?"

"Tell her… Beautiful is as beautiful does – there is none more graceful than the Falcon's crane."

"Sir?"

"Word for word, give her that message; she'll understand."

"Yes sir. Shall I say who it's from?"

"She'll know." Tommy hung up the phone, a weight lifting from his shoulders and for the first time since receiving Kim's letter felt as if he'd take a step towards the light, out of the darkness that was the despair eating away at him daily.

The ball was in her court again – if she chose to respond or not was up to her, but this time… this time at least he'd tried.


	2. Chapter 2

July 2008

**Title: Clipped Wings - Part 2**

**Author:** **Jade-Max**

**Rating:** **T (ages 13+) (to be safe)**

**Disclaimer:** Power Rangers and their affiliates belong to Disney and are used without permission and no money is being made off of this. I'm simply destroying the sandcastles in their sandbox

**Author Notes: **I hadn't intended to write a sequel, but yeah... this is what happens when the muse won't be denied. And I'm messing with the timeline a little – the idea is that Kat and Tommy aren't a couple yet and he's had Kimberly's letter for a couple of months at the very least and if I had to pick a timeframe, I'd say roughly a week after Jason's return to take over the Gold Ranger Power in Zeo.

**Clipped Wings - Part 2**

Piles of phone messages, cards, gifts and various other paraphernalia from fans littered the table in the dorm as Kimberly Ann Hart checked the last bag and upended it on the table. "That's the last of it."

"Are you sure?" Mia, one of her fellow gymnasts, looked dubious."I thought there was more than this."

"Most of it was junk," Kim assured her with a grin. "I boxed up what I wanted to keep for a memento scrap book."

"Tell me how you roped me into this again?"

"You owe me one - and this is it."

"Ugh," Mia groaned good-naturedly. "I knew I shouldn't have let you claim your favor later. This is going to take days."

"I've already been through my mail," Kim reminded her pointedly. "And that stack was bigger than this."

"Must be some incentive." The tease brought a faint blush to Kimberly's cheeks and Mia let her off the hook. "So what am I looking for exactly?"

"Two words." Kimberly's smile faded and her voice wavered for a moment. "Tommy Oliver."

--

"Nothing from a Tommy Oliver." Mia set the last of the phone messages that had been taken down for Kimberly during the Pan Global Competition aside. "Are you sure he would have called?"

"Or written - at least, I thought he would have." Kimberly slouched in the chair, propping her chin in her hands and surveying the piles of phone messages with a critical eye. "Are you sure we didn't miss it?"

"How could we? We checked everything with a name on it twice."

Chewing on her lower lip, Kim tried not to be too disappointed. She didn't even know if Tommy had seen her performance, let alone her message to him - and even if he had, he'd likely never forgive her for sending him that breakup letter. A wince crossed her features and Mia shook her finger in Kimberly's face, drawing her back to the present.

"Ah ah, no moping. There's a whole pile of things that were left by secret admirers or simple messages left without names."

"You don't get it," Kim slouched back in her chair, away from her friend and fellow athlete. "Tommy would have made sure I didn't miss his message if he was going to send me one."

"If." Mia cocked her head at Kim. "We're doing this for an 'if'?"

Rubbing her hands over her face, Kim came clean. "I don't even know if he saw me compete."

The eyebrows on Kimberly's petite Asian friend almost hit her hairline. "Weren't you the one who told me he wouldn't have missed it for the world?"

"Yeah, but that was when I first got here. I told you what happened."

"No, you told me you broke up with him and hadn't heard from him since."

"It's true enough."

"A bad breakup?"

"I don't know - maybe."

"How can you not know?"

"Because I broke up with him by letter, okay?"

"You what?" Mia almost came up out of her chair, staring at Kimberly as if she'd never seen her before. "Kim, how _could_ you?"

"I wasn't thinking straight."

"I'll say."

"Go ahead - I deserve it. Tell me what a horrible person I am for disregarding his feelings. Tell me I was childish and immature for getting caught up in the support of my teammates and doubting the support that actually got me here. Tell me-"

"-to shut up?" Batting her eyelashes, Mia shook her head. "You've already beaten yourself up about it I see."

"Every second since dropping that thing in the mail box."

"Then what made you send it in the first place?"

Kimberly was the image of abject misery. "It wasn't fair to Tommy to keep him tied to me so I told him I'd found someone else - someone I was happy with. I'd hoped we could still be friends after all this - I mean, we were always friends first before anything else - but... he never wrote me back or called or anything. I figured he wanted nothing to do with me."

"So why didn't you call him and explain? If you'd just told him the truth..."

"I know." Hanging her head, she brushed away tears. "I was scared, Mia. I was alone and after Christmas I felt so guilty. I mean, I'm all the way across the country and Tommy and I have our whole lives ahead of us. It's not fair to either of us to be tied into a long distance relationship no matter how close we were."

"Sounds like you two were pretty serious."

"Yeah." Kimberly sighed, looking away and out the small kitchen window. Mia had no idea. "We were tight right from when we first met."

"No wonder you've been a wreck." Mia reached across the table to clasp Kim's hand and squeeze. "Here, there are some doozies in this anonymous pile that should make you laugh if nothing else. Don't give up hope, Kim - Tommy might have just postponed calling you if he watched the games. He would have had to know you'd be inundated with mail and messages - I mean, you were the talk of the games!"

"Maybe. Tommy's a sweetheart but he can be as dense as a brick."

"Doesn't take a hint, huh?"

"Never." Kim reached for a pile of messages, idly flipping through them. "Call me and a number," her tone was dry. "How original."

Mia giggled. "How about this one? What lovely legs you have, encased in white and pink, for if we were but to meet, I could tell you what I think."

Kimberly laughed, shaking her head with a groan. "What bad poetry."

"Horrible poetry you mean." Mia pulled another out from the center of the pile. "Beauty deserves no Beast and I'm just the guy for you."

Cracking up they fished for more random abstract messages that had been left for Kim during the games - mostly from male callers judging by the tone and words used. They worked their way through the stack, laughing and joking, pretending to swoon and gagging at some of the more awful comments. The sexual innuendoes made them both blush and the sweetly innocent compliments had them both sighing softly and grinning like idiots.

It wasn't until they were nearing the end of the pile, that Mia plucked another random message from the pile and read it silently. "Hey Kim, check this: Beautiful is as beautiful does - there is none more graceful than the Falcon's crane."

Mia was already grinning when she looked up to find Kimberly's face had gone white and was staring at her with wide eyed shock. "Kim?"

Kimberly choked. "W-what did that say?"

"Beautiful is as beautiful does - there is none more graceful than the Falcon's crane."

The trembling started as something unnoticed but quickly progressed into full scale shakes as Kimberly sought to control herself. It was from Tommy; it had to be. Several of the messages had spoken of falcons or cranes, but none had nailed what her leotard was about except this one - and none would have caught its true significance except her friends.

The Falcon's Crane.

Pairing that with Beautiful... it couldn't be from anyone _but_ Tommy.

"Kim?"

"That's it." She found her voice again, lifting incredulous eyes to Mia's. "That's from Tommy."

"How can you tell?"

How indeed? Mia didn't know about Kimberly's past as a Power Ranger. She didn't know about Tommy's current stint - Kimberly would never have broken that trust to anyone - and she didn't know the very deep significance of the Falcon and the Crane. There was however something that Kim could tell her. Swallowing hard, she took a deep breath an attempted to explain - and failed miserably.

"I just... know."

"Oh come on! There's more to it than _that_."

Blushing profusely, Kimberly looked away, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Tommy's nickname for me is Beautiful."

Mia made a rude noise. "Then any one of these other ones which spoke of beauty should have caught your attention, but they didn't. This one nabbed you right away. What gives?"

"I... It's the way it's written, word for word, what it says. Tommy's always thought I was graceful - and he's always been the Falcon." It was as close as Kimberly would get to revealing Tommy's secret. If Mia drew the connection, she'd deny it and think of a way around it.

Thankfully, Mia seemed to be more focused on the message and its context than where the nicknames had come from. "Which makes you the Crane, right?"

Kim nodded.

"Hmm, so when the author of this message - and I'm not saying it's not Tommy, but it could be someone else - says that you're beautiful because of what you do and you're graceful, the most graceful thing the Falcon's ever seen, it's like code - right?"

"Sort of. I can't explain it, Mia, I just... I _know_ that's from Tommy."

"So... then what are you going to do about it?"

Kimberly blinked, caught off guard by the question. What indeed? She didn't entirely understand Tommy's message - the blatant possessiveness when in reference to the Crane belonging to the Falcon - especially when they'd been a non-couple for over a year.

One year, two weeks, three days, seventeen hours and twenty six minutes.

Not that she was counting.

And she'd never admit that she'd been subconsciously counting to anyone, even Mia. With a miserable sigh, she stared at the message Mia still held in one hand. "I didn't honestly think he'd be watching after what I did to him. I mean, I hoped he would and I knew the rest of my friends - at least one or two of them - would so they could tell him about it."

"He didn't just watch, Kim. The date and time on this message says he called you barely minutes after your floor routine ended. I bet it has something to do with your little 'secret message' at the end of your routine - doesn't it?"

"Secret message?"

Mia made the same hand motions Kimberly had made to the camera and then, to Kim's surprise, spoke it aloud. "I miss you, Handsome? What was that about?"

Ducking her head, Kimberly couldn't hide the fiery blush that swept through her cheeks. "It was all I could think of to get his attention."

"The leotard wasn't enough? The routines - acting all the world in each one like a bird who's lost its power to fly? The symbolism in your routines is going to be talked about for years."

"I told you - Tommy's a little dense. The leotard he'd probably get, I mean I made it as blatantly obvious as I could, but the rest... I think the world of the man, but he's just not that observant."

"You mean he wasn't last time you saw him." Mia finally slipped the paper onto the table top and across as she got to her feet. "It's been over a year, Kim - people can change a lot in a year."

Kimberly watched her friend walk out before her gaze dropped to the paper.

Tommy had called.

After over a year, he'd finally called her and broken the silence between them. What did it mean? Did he still feel the same way he had about her? Was he still waiting? She doubted it. Tommy was a sweetheart, the quintessential gentleman and she hadn't been mistaken about Kat's interest before she'd left. The ache in her chest was ignored as she thought about the two of them together.

They'd make a striking couple - if they were one. And if they were, why would Tommy have called - and left _that_ kind of message? Kat was the Crane now. Or had been. She'd seen the news - the Rangers had undergone a new power transformation - and Tommy was no longer the White Falcon. Or rather, no longer wore the mantle of the Falcon.

To her, he would always be synonymous with the avian just as she would always be the Crane to his Falcon. Their animal spirits had been linked just as the two of them had been linked. Giving that over to Kat had been one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do. Hell, giving up the Rangers - and everything that went with it - had been excruciating.

But losing Tommy... living without him had been easier in the beginning. They'd talked, kept in touch religiously, sent letters back and forth – until just after Christmas. Christmas had reminded her of everything she'd left behind, everything she'd given up and everything she stood to lose. It had reminded her that her friends had a part of their lives that didn't include her anymore and with the new team, keeping Tommy tied to her had seemed selfish and petty. Especially in the light of all the looks women gave him.

She'd been smug at the time, content in the knowledge that he was hers and he didn't notice because he never had eyes for anyone but her. He was sweetly naive that way. Unfortunately, it had been when she'd come back to Florida from Angel Grove that things had really started to sink in and she'd begun questioning if keeping him tied to her was the right decision.

They'd been high school sweethearts and - to be honest - she readily believed they would always be together. But was that fair to him; to them both? Was it realistic to expect that their first real serious relationship would be the only one they'd ever have? She trusted Tommy not to cheat on her and she knew he trusted her to do the same – but the obliteration of that trust had taken but four little words.

I've met someone else.

If only it had been true, maybe she wouldn't have spent this past year so alone and lonely – but Tommy haunted her. Throwing herself into training hadn't helped, in some ways it had only made it worse. Hence the reason she'd thrown all of her efforts into her new routine for the Pan Globals and the costume to accompany it. Kimberly hated the fact that Mia had been right; her routines had been choreographed specifically to seem like a bird who'd flown – and come to a crashing end.

Which was probably how most people viewed her career after her choice of music for her floor routine – but she'd made the decision conscious of the fact that leaving the lyrics in would likely knock her out of contention for a medal. Knowing that the point three deduction could mean the difference between not medaling at all and gold.

But some things were worth more than gold.

Reaching across the table, she pulled the message towards her with her fingertips so she could look at it. The message was written in black block letters – obviously not Tommy's handwriting – but their significance was unmistakable – as if whoever had taken the message had known its importance.

Which was ridiculous of course, unless Tommy had told the guy taking the message everything? Preposterous. The Tommy she remembered would never have been able to be that forward with a complete stranger. Of course the way her recollections echoed and what he really was were probably totally off the mark.

Doubt struck instantly even as her index finger absently traced first word of the message. Was it such a good idea after all – getting in touch with him after all this time had passed? Trying to rekindle a flame she'd deliberately attempted to snuff in the effort to let him go and give him the chance to live his life without her? A chance to experience things he never would with her?

Staring down at the message, Kimberly chewed on her bottom lip, indecisive.

She had two choices. Ignore the missive - a clear sign that Tommy had either forgiven her and was ready to allow her back into his life, or he'd simply responded to her plea as he'd always done in the past – or she could respond to it and accept the olive branch for what it was. If it _was_ what she thought it was.

A grimace settled across her features as she sat back in her chair and stared at the note under her finger tips, debating what to do. Unbidden, her eyes drifted to the clock and she mentally did the time zone change without consciously trying. A part of her was still living on Angel Grove time, and with Jason there it made sense to keep track of their time zone. Other than the occasional call from Trini, Jason was still her best friend and confidante.

Unfortunately he was stubborn as a mule and refused to enlighten her as to what was happening if she was unwilling to speak with the rest of the Rangers herself.

Yet Tommy had called.

He hadn't called her dorm – they didn't have direct lines and the one time he _had_ called she'd suffered a ribbing from her teammates. It wasn't the good natured teasing that had her asking him not to call anymore – it had been the grueling disciplinary action her coach had taken. And while this time he'd called the arena where she'd been competing, at least he'd called.

Bracing herself, she pushed to her feet and crossed the room.

Her decision had been made and if she didn't follow it through while she had the courage, she'd falter. And talking to Tommy was something she didn't think she'd ever do again if it failed.

Dialing the number quickly – she knew it by heart – her fingers tightened on the phone as she silently counted the rings.

_Ring… _

One.

_Ring… _

Two.

_Ring… _

Three.

_Ring… _

Four.

_Beeep._

"_You've reached the Olivers. We're unable to come to the phone right-" _

Kimberly hung up, staring at it with the most ridiculous urge to laugh hysterically. It figured. She'd _finally_ found the courage to call him and nobody was home. Picking up the receiver a second time, she called a number she knew almost as well as her own before her courage waned any further.

_Ring…_

One.

"_Youth Center, Ernie's Juice Bar – Ernie speaking."_

"Hey Ernie." Somehow, she managed not to choke on the greeting. "It's Kim."

"_Kimberly!" _

She could hear Ernie cover the mouth piece to announce who was calling and almost panicked. "Ernie, wait!"

Ernie's breathing came back on the line. "_Sorry Kim, what was that? I was just going to tell the gang you were on the line."_

"I know; I'd rather you didn't tell everyone I'm calling."

"_What's up?"_

"Uh." Kimberly bit her lip. "Is Tommy around?"

"_Not yet. Jason and Kat are here waiting for the others."_

"Oh."

"_Should I tell him you called?" _

"I..." Her fingers tightened, whitening with the strength of her grip. "I don't think you should. Look, Ernie, I'll try him at home again, maybe he just didn't make it to the phone."

"_Alright, Kim; take care."_

"Thanks, Ernie, you-"

"_Wait a second, Kim – Tommy just walked in." _

Ernie's exclamation cut her off and her heart lurched in her chest.Tommy had shown up? The urge to slam the phone down was almost overpowering and she braced her back against the wall for what she felt coming.

"_Are you still there?"_

"I'm here."

"_Should I get him?"_

"How's he look, Ernie?"

"_The same as always. Hang on a second… Tommy! Hey, Tommy, you've got a phone call!"_

There was a shuffling on the other end and for the first time since sending her letter she heard his voice. _"For me? Who is it Ernie?"_

"_Some fan – shall I tell them you're busy?"_

"Ernie!" He didn't respond to her mortified exclamation and she heard the phone change hands, Tommy's laughter echoing in her ears.

"_Nah, I've always got time for my fans. Hello?"_

He sounded so happy, so _normal_ she almost cried.

"_Hello?"_

Bracing herself to answer, she inhaled deeply and forged ahead "Hello Falcon."

"_Kimberly?!"_

"Know anyone else who calls you that?"

"_I might." _

The sound of a stool being pulled up didn't escape her notice. Apparently he figured this was going to be a long conversation – or he needed the support of an outside source as much as she did. Heaven knew the only thing keeping her on her feet was the solid length of wall behind her. "I... Tommy, I... I got your message."

"_Oh."_

That was it? Just 'Oh'? It was disheartening to note there was a slightly guarded edge to his words, as if he didn't quite know how to talk to her – as if they were strangers. And maybe they were; she never would have thought herself capable of hurting him like she had.

"Yeah. I... I just... wanted to say thanks."

"_For what?"_

"For watching." The words came out softly and heartfelt. Knowing he'd been watching after the fact had buoyed her spirits in the wake of her coach's disappointment.

"_Yeah, well, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Was it everything you dreamed it would be?"_

"And more," she answered honestly – and faltered. She couldn't simply come out and tell him she'd sacrificed one dream – on national television no less – in the futile sense to recapture the one she'd knowingly shattered. "It's not enough though."

"_Going for the Olympics, huh?"_

Either he was being deliberately obtuse or he really didn't understand what she meant. The Olympics were the last thing on her mind and the Tommy she'd known would have realized it. He would have understood her almost overwhelming desire to come home now that her dream had been achieved. Now that she wanted to focus on the nearer and dearer dream to her heart – but he didn't understand. He didn't, and she felt her heart quiver as she considered that he hadn't cared for her as deeply as she'd believed. "I've been asked."

"_Congratulations, Kim, you more than deserve it." _

It was the warmest, most heartfelt thing he'd said so far and this time a tear did slip down her cheek. He didn't want her anymore. "I... thanks, Tommy. I guess I should be going, I just... just wanted... I mean I..."

"_Hey, you okay?"_

A laugh bubbled through her lips but came out as a half sob. "Fine, just... just fine."

"_You don't sound fine. He didn't hurt you, did he?"_

He? What he was he talking abo... oh right, the make believe guy she'd told him she'd left him for. The make believe guy she'd been a fool to create and tell him about. The make believe guy that had all of Tommy's traits, that had been written about to echo his own strengths so he wouldn't question her decision. "No."

"_Good, 'cause I'd never forgive him if he did – no matter how much you like him."_

It took a minute after the fact to register that Tommy had sounded not only concerned, but protective; an echo of the man she'd left behind. Always the white knight – her white knight – no matter what color he wore. "I think I'd better go."

"_Kim... wait."_

The plea in his tone was the last straw and her knees shook, collapsing as she sank to the floor, the phone clutched tightly against her ear. It was a word she'd waited in vain to hear when she'd made the choice to come to Florida right up until she'd passed through the boarding gate. "I'm here."

There was a long pause before he spoke again, his voice low so not to be overheard by the others in the juice bar. _"I... I miss you too, Beautiful."_

Sobbing, the phone dropped from fingers suddenly nerveless, landing with a clatter on the tile floor. She couldn't take it – the pain was tearing her apart – and didn't notice as the receiver bore witness to her breakdown. Unaware that the line was still active and that, on the other end, a man she'd never stopped loving was listening to her cry her heart out into her knees.

--

On the other end of the line, Tommy bowed his head, covering his face with one hand as he sat and listened to Kimberly cry like her heart was breaking. Each sob tore at his heart in a way her letter never had, making him ache with the knowledge that she was crying over some guy he'd never met and it had been his words that had started it.

Slowly, carefully, he lifted the phone back to the cradle and hung it up.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**Clipped Wings - Part 3**

"Hey man, you okay?"

Tommy lifted looked up dazedly, the echo of the words warring with the memory of the last time he'd heard them in conjunction with Kimberly resounding in his head. Jason's concerned expression swam before his eyes for a heartbeat before coming back into sharp focus, the worry clear in his eyes. "Yeah... yeah..."

Behind Jason, Kat's expression fell and her shoulders slumped. She'd recognized the same look Tommy had been wearing when Kimberly's letter had come and it didn't take a genius to figure out who he'd been talking to. Steeling herself for a confrontation, she stood and moved to Jason's side, placing a gentle hand on his forearm when he would have called Tommy on the lie. A subtle shake of her head directed him away, leaving her with Tommy, alone at the juice bar counter beside the phone.

"Tommy?"

"I can't do it, Kat." Bleak eyes lifted to hers, pleading for understanding. "I can't pretend I'm happy she's with him - like she never hurt me."

"No one is asking you to." Darting a glance around, Kat motioned towards the exit. "Want to go for a walk and talk about it?"

Tommy, in the time since Kimberly had gone, had found her presence a soothing reminder of his friends and how much they cared for him. Katherine's determination to ensure he didn't end up sliding down into the pit of despair and self pity that had initially threatened him had built a bond between them. In some ways she was closer to him than Jason and she knew things about his relationship with Kimberly no one else did; she'd filled a gap Kimberly's absence had left.

Walking with her wasn't as appealing as going to walk the shoreline of the lake as he'd done the last time he'd received a communiqué from Kimberly was, but he also knew from experience that Katherine was a good sounding board. She could listen - and listen well - and maybe that was what he more right now needed than bottling everything up to let it fester. If nothing else, he knew from recent experience it would make him feel somewhat better and it would help him understand things he otherwise wouldn't.

Katherine's ability to offer a different point of view - a female point of view - was invaluable.

"Yeah, let's get out of here."

Tommy rose to his feet and headed for the exit, unaware that his tortured expression was well visible to Jason and the others who'd come in while he'd been talking to Kim. He hadn't noticed them enter and barely registered their presence now as he brushed passed, failing to notice the sympathetic look Tanya shot Katherine.

Outside, away from prying eyes, Tommy stopped and inhaled deeply, struggling against the overwhelming urge to simply scream his feeling of injustice at the sky. That kind of release would only make things worse, driving away the control he knew he was going to need for this discussion.

"Tommy?"

Katherine's hand on his shoulder made him jump as he turned to face her. "Sorry, Kat."

"It's okay. Shall we?"

Tommy set out, noting she fell into step beside him easily enough. Katherine was tall for a girl and kept pace with him like any of his guy friends. It was a good thing too since the pace he set was quicker than normal - anything to get away from the Youth Center and juice bar.

He was really starting to hate the place.

"So... what did Kimberly have to say?"

Kicking at a rock in the pathway, Tommy turned the conversation over in his mind. Where to start? He hadn't told the others he'd called Kimberly after her Pan Globals performance, though they'd noticed his distraction, and he hadn't inform them of her signed message and what it meant. Sure, they'd seen it - and Billy might even have understood it - but none of them had commented on it. In fact, none of them spoke about Kim except Jason and Kat, almost as if they were afraid to bring her up. Not that he could blame them - he wasn't exactly communicative when it came to Kimberly as a topic.

Still, Katherine deserved the truth but to give her that truth, he was going to have to talk about having seen Kim perform and what affect she'd had on him. He would have to touch on how he'd felt, what he'd seen - Kim's leotard - and her eventual message and use of her once nickname for him. Opening up to Katherine about the hurt he still felt, the pride at Kimberly's accomplishments that were interlaced with an acute ache twined together into the jumble of his broken heart wasn't going to be easy.

He'd been healing - badly and slowly - but healing none the less until her little Pan Globals performance. Everything he'd tried to accomplish seemed to have gone out the window once he'd seen her little secret message and made that blasted phone call; the call that had allowed him to hear her voice once again - and her tears.

His heart squeezed painfully with the memory.

Beside him, he barely took notice of the fact that Kat waited patiently for an answer to her question, giving him the time and space to reply in his own time. Thankfully she was used to his brooding silences after several months of them and when he finally found where to start - in answering her question - she was ready to listen.

"She called to thank me."

"Oh?" The surprise in Katherine's voice was genuine. "What for?"

Tommy shoved his hands deep into his pockets, his gaze on the pathway as they stepped onto one of the myriad of paved routes leading through Angel Grove Park. "I left her a message after her performance at the games." They walked together for a distance, Tommy mulling over the message he'd left and Kimberly's call. "You saw her perform, right?"

"Of course; we all did. She was something else, wasn't she?"

"Yeah," Tommy didn't dare look at Katherine, but he knew she caught his softly spoken confirmation. "She was. Her floor routine especially - I'd never seen it before... or the little look she gave the camera afterwards."

"The sign language?"

Katherine nodded - he only knew because her shadow did the same where it fell across the path before them. "Do you know what she said, Kat?"

"Billy mumbled it, but he turned red and wouldn't repeat it when we asked him to. Do _you_ know what she said, Tommy?"

"Yeah. Yeah I do." Tommy fell silent, wondering if he should tell her. Kat had spent so much time trying to get him to move on, to heal, and with four little signed words Kimberly had destroyed her hard work and given him hope - hope she'd crushed just minutes before back at the juice bar over the phone. He sighed resignedly. If nothing else, Kimberly's letter had taught him he couldn't hide things from his friends and this was something that would eventually eat him alive if he let it. "She... she said..." he stopped and made the motions slowly so Kat wouldn't misunderstand him. "I miss you, Handsome."

Katherine was quiet, continuing to match him step for step as they continued as a slower pace about the lake, Tommy's audible admission to those words - and the obvious hope behind them - seemed to weigh him down. As if the weight of the words were resting on his shoulders and a part of him realized how hopeless they really seemed in the light of the evidence. But what evidence did he really have?

Stopping by one of the benches that lined the pathway, he slumped down into it and braced his elbows on his knees as he stared at the tips of his shoes. He was so confused. "I don't know what to think, or feel Kat. It's like... like she's deliberately toying with me, but the Kimberly I knew would never have done that."

Settling beside him, Katherine didn't move close enough to touch him, just be near. "What do you feel, Tommy?"

"I..." weeks ago that would have been an easy enough question to answer but right now he just didn't know. Rather than put her off, he simply opened his mouth and spoke without thinking about it. "Hurt. Confused. Hopeful... but wary. I don't want her to hurt me again and... she could, Kat - she really could."

"Of course she could, but I don't think she will."

"I wish I had your optimism." He clasped his hands together, squeezing the fingers together tightly. "She... she said competing at Pan Globals wasn't enough - that she's been offered a chance at the Olympic team."

"Did she say she was going?"

A frown crossed his face as he stared sightlessly at his hands.

"She didn't, did she?"

Slowly, almost disbelievingly, Tommy shook his head. Katherine was right - Kimberly _hadn't_ said she was taking the appointment. Kimberly had simply said she'd been asked, not that she'd accepted the position - he'd simply assumed she would take it as an extension of the dream she'd left to follow. "No... she didn't. But she will; it's what she always wanted."

"Are you sure about that, Tommy?"

He wasn't sure about anything anymore. "No, Kat, I'm not sure. I'm not sure about anything anymore. This whole mess is tearing me apart and I don't know what I should be thinking or feeling anymore. Watching Kim compete was awesome and despite what she did to me, I can't regret letting her go to follow her dream. I mean, how could I when she was probably the best athlete at the Pan Globals? Encouraging her to go and train was the best thing for her career - and it was a long time dream. I couldn't hold her back; I didn't have the right."

"But?"

He exhaled deeply, slumping down further in the bench, his head hanging dejectedly lower. "She shouldn't have left. If she'd stayed, we'd still be together and none of this would have happened!"

"You can't know that."

Lifting his head, Tommy stared straight into Katherine's compassionate blue eyes. "Can't I? If Kimberly hadn't left, she'd be sitting beside me instead of you, Kat. You're wonderful and you've come a long way as a Ranger, but every time I see you, every time I watch you transform or fight, I see her. I remember what it was like having her as a part of the team - and I miss her. I miss her so much a part of me resents you for being able to take over for her. I know you didn't ask to and I know it's not your fault she left, but I can't help it. And I hate myself for that."

She remained silent as Tommy dropped his gaze back to his hands, unable to look at her.

"You've done nothing but work your hardest - both as a Ranger and to keep me from going crazy - and I can't thank you enough for that..."

"But I'm not Kimberly. I know that Tommy, and I do understand."

"You shouldn't have to."

"No, I shouldn't," the blonde agreed. "I did Kimberly a favor to help her follow a dream you all encouraged her to chase - especially you - but that is neither here nor there. Emotions don't always make sense when you're hurt, do they?"

"You said it. This should be easier than it is, shouldn't it?"

"It's not easy letting someone you care about go."

"I sure screwed that up, didn't I?"

"Only if you've really given up. They say that anything worth having is worth fighting for. Kimberly didn't say she was going on to the Olympic trials so how do you know she'll accept? She's important to you, Tommy and frankly you're not the same without her. If you're going to recover from this, you're going to have to make a decision instead of wallow in self pity."

"Ouch, Kat." He winced. "Sheath the claws."

"Would you rather I lie about it?"

"Of course not, it's just... just..." Tommy sighed. "She doesn't need me anymore; she's found someone else."

Soft fingers curled about his forearm. "You're lying to yourself again."

"You didn't hear her, Kat. The way she sounded..." his throat closed, remembering how _good_ it had felt to hear her voice after such an extended absence. It was like walking through fog after living in the sunlight... and suddenly the sunlight had returned; acutely painful, but pleasurable; not unlike being blinded after walking in darkness. It hurt… but it was a good hurt. "She sounds so..."

It took him a moment to realize what he wanted to say and what he'd actually heard were two different things. Oh, he wanted to say she sounded fine, that Kimberly was the same, peppy, energetic Kim he remembered, but he couldn't. There had been almost none of that old spark and the way her voice had shaken...

Kimberly had sounded nervous, almost uncertain of his reception on the phone.

A frown crossed his face. Why would Kimberly be nervous about talking to him? _She_ had dumped _him_ - and in the worst possible way. Despite her message at the end of her floor routine, he still didn't think she had the right to be antsy about talking to him. If anyone had a right to be nervous, it was him. Of course, he wasn't and hadn't been the moment he'd heard her voice. He'd simply been happy she'd called - and she'd sounded anything but.

"So?"

Katherine's gentle prompt brought him out of his reverie. "She didn't sound like Kim... but she did. She sounded so... I haven't heard her sound that nervous since we first met."

"Maybe she has a reason to be nervous."

"I don't see why - I'm not the one who broke up with her."

"Don't be dense, Tommy." Her hand dropped away with the gentle chide, leaving him bereft for a moment. "Kimberly has every right to be as nervous as you."

"I wasn't nervous."

"No? Then why were you sitting instead of standing? Jason and I both saw your face the moment she spoke - and don't try to tell me you didn't need the support of the bar because I saw you sag against it."

He didn't even try to deny it; hearing her voice again was like getting bagged with a ton of bricks. He hadn't been prepared for it. Sure, at home he'd been on pins and needles, jumping to scoop up the phone every time it rang, his hopes as high as the ceiling - only to be disappointed when it was never Kim. He hadn't expected her to call him at the Youth Center.

But then, he hadn't expected her to write him at the Youth Center and look how _that _had turned out.

"Tommy, look at me."

"I don't deserve your friendship, Kat."

"Probably not."

His head came up at her wry, amused tone and the sparkle in her eyes told him he'd fallen for her ploy. "That's not fighting fair."

"I was supposed to?" She arched her eyebrows at him as if to say 'in your dreams' and continued. "If know if I was in your place, I would have been nervous about talking to the ex that dumped me - especially if I didn't know why."

"I know why," Tommy bit out the words defensively, the sting of Kimberly's rejection never having really faded - only glossed over. "She wrote me, remember? You were there; you listened while Adam read the words that shattered my world. You heard when she penned, saw it was in her handwriting... heard those four awful words... heard..."

"That letter didn't really explain anything, did it?"

"It was supposed to?" Self derision colored his tone. "It was plain enough; even I couldn't miss the fact she was breaking up with me."

Katherine didn't dignify his comment with one of her own and simply waited once more, as if she knew he wasn't finished yet.

Leaning back on the bench, Tommy tilted his head back to stare at the cloudy blue sky, a part of him wishing he could turn back the clock to before Kimberly's departure. To before Katherine's arrival and the upheaval her presence had caused. Yet, he couldn't blame Kat for being Rita's pawn, couldn't hate her for that no matter how much he wanted to. It hit too close to home, reminded him of his own roots as a Ranger and - in some ways - he understood her need to prove herself better than anyone.

But his initiation into the Rangers hadn't been at the expense of another's.

Still, if he could go back, it would cost him what he had now.

Jason's return.

Katherine's friendship.

Months of slow, torturous snippets of contact which had only left him desperate for more - until Christmas.

Christmas - the memories of Kimberly's return and their time spent together.

The Letter.

And he knew he'd give every last part of those memories up - even that electric kiss under the mistletoe - if he could go back in time to before Kimberly had left and found some way to get her to stay. Find some way to convince her that what they had was special, eternal...unique. To imprint upon her the rightness of their relationship and wipe away any last lingering doubts in her mind that they were anything but meant for one another.

Despite the power at his fingertips, he was powerless to change what had been and had to make do with what was.

"Why do you think she tried to get in touch with me at the Pan Globals, Kat?"

"What I think doesn't matter."

"Sure it does. You're her friend; you're my friend. Do you think I'm being foolish?"

"Dense, maybe."

"Thanks."

"You asked." Katherine shifted in her seat. "Tommy, Kimberly didn't just try and get in touch with you at Pan Globals. We all saw her; we know what she did and what she wore."

"But _why_? Why the leotard? Why the routines... why... why that song?"

"Isn't the better question why she gave up a medal position?"

"What?!" Tommy's head snapped forward incredulously. "What do you mean she didn't medal?"

"Did you watch the same games we did?"

"Sure; and Kim was practically flawless throughout!"

"_Practically_, yes. She took a point deduction on her vault, another point seven on the bars and another point three on the floor routine."

"She got _deducted_ on her floor routine? But... why?"

"Her song choice had lyrics - not just the lyrical line."

"Oh man..."

"You didn't notice she never made it to the podium?"

A blush crept into Tommy's cheeks, staining them a guilty pink. "I never watched that part."

"Tommy!"

"I was too busy on the phone trying to leave her a message. I don't even remember what her scores were."

"Nine point sevens; if she hadn't chosen the music she had, she'd have won gold."

"Why would she... how could she... it was her dream, she had to know she was throwing it away by doing that!" Tommy was on his feet pacing back and forth in front of the bench seconds later, barely conscious of the fact. "She had no right to give up her dream like that, no right! I... we sacrificed so much so she would have that chance and she just threw it away like it meant nothing!"

"Or everything."

Rounding on Kat, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "Kimberly wouldn't throw away her dreams on a whim!"

"Then maybe she had another dream; one she wanted more than the one she was chasing." Katherine deliberately got to her feet and, to Tommy's stunned amazement, signed Kimberly's last message to him - the one that had broken the silence between them and made him call her. "If you think about it Tommy, you might just realize what that dream is."

Gaping at her, he couldn't find anything to say as she stared at him hard, nodded, and walked away, leaving him to his thoughts. It was a full minute before he regained any kind of motor control and another before he found his voice. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

Katherine stopped at the edge of the park and looked back over her shoulder at him with a slightly sad smile he couldn't interpret. "What do you think... _handsome_?"

She disappeared out of sight swiftly after her last parting shot and Tommy silently cheered her decision. If she'd stayed, he might have been tempted to give into violence. Not that Kat couldn't defend herself, but she wouldn't have withstood this and she knew it. She was an intelligent young woman who knew how to pick her battles - and knew this battle was one he'd have to fight on his own.

What was she thinking planting ideas in his head like that? She'd all but come out and said that Kimberly had given up her dream deliberately. Sabotaged herself to make a point and reach for him in a fashion he'd never have missed. In a way she had; he'd never been able to stand her distress and had always tried to help in some small fashion. Even if it was just to make her smile.

Was that what this was - another way to make her smile? Her tears had torn through him when she'd been on the phone with him and at the time all he'd been thinking about was how good it felt to hear her voice - and how bad. How each word, each syllable was like a knife twisting in his gut because of the breathless way she'd said them, until he'd forced himself to ask about her new beau. It hadn't been easy and he'd almost choked on the words, but he'd needed to know.

The flat way she'd denied there being anything wrong had struck a chord within him he hadn't known was still attuned to her. Something had happened between her and her new beau, something awful and Kimberly was avoiding it. Had he hurt her? She'd said he hadn't, but Tommy suspected otherwise.

The way she's collapsed - practically shattering when he'd told her he missed her too - still weighed heavily on his heart, like a burden he didn't need but couldn't avoid. She'd broken like a woman badly in need of a friend - perhaps if he hadn't said anything about her beau, or mentioned his nickname for her...

He collapsed back onto the bench and cradled his head in his hands, his elbows braced forward on his knees as he forced himself to confront his feelings. No matter how much it hurt, he wouldn't shy from the truth of it, from the reality of the situation.

His own dreams had been detonated, vanishing in a puff of smoke when Kimberly's letter had been read. When he'd snatched it and - thoroughly disbelieving - read the words in her hand writing, he'd been unable to fathom their meaning at first. Reading it aloud had been what he'd needed to solidify the very abstract idea of Kimberly breaking up with him in his mind.

Despite it all... despite the pain and suffering he'd been subject to, the difficulty of his recovery to the point he was now at - if indeed he'd ever recovered at all - it had felt so _right_ to call her Beautiful. It had felt good... better than he had in a long time to speak with her so honestly, to pretend like she cared.

Kim's reaction non-withstanding, that conversation had been one of the most satisfying events he'd experienced since receiving her letter and while it had been short and indistinct - leaving more questions than answers - he'd felt complete for the first time in a long time. Talking to Kim - being with her - had always had that effect on him and it was something that hadn't changed apparently. Not that he minded; he just wished he had other outlets beyond his Karate and being a Power Ranger that gave him a similar feeling.

Was that why she'd contacted him? Because she'd needed his support? He had told her before she'd left that she'd always have him; that she could rely on him - and he'd meant it. No matter what had happened between them in the interlude, he would always count her among his best friends. She'd been his first real friend when he'd moved to Angel Grove, she'd stood by him through the loss of his Green Ranger powers and backed him up as the Leader in White. Their history wasn't something he could easily overlook, no matter the fact that she'd appeared to.

No, she wasn't his in the way he wanted anymore, but their conversation had reinforced that she was his in the ways that counted. Kimberly had sounded as if she'd been reaching out to a friend. Of all the people she'd reached out to, she still wanted his help more than anyone. It was a telling revelation and one that eased the heartbreak and pain of the long weeks. Sure, he wasn't considered hers in a romantic fashion, but she was still special to him - and her silent cry for help his way proved in some way she he was special to her too.

_Beautiful_...

It was not only her nickname from him, but the way he truly viewed her. It was everything she was, everything she wanted to be and, most importantly, it was who she was inside. What Kimberly had never understood - what no one had ever understood - was that he hadn't nicknamed her Beautiful for her physical beauty. They wouldn't have blamed him if he had, but he'd never been that shallow.

Kimberly had gone out of her way to ensure he'd felt welcome, to befriend him, to make him feel comfortable. She'd seen him at his worst and never given up on him; seen him at his best and stood beside him and she'd always been the first one to jump in to try and cheer him up when he was blue... barring the one circumstance where it had been her fault.

Regardless of that and the fallout surrounding it, she was still Beautiful. His Beautiful no matter to whom she claimed to belong. Perhaps that was why it hurt so much; it had taken her leaving - really leaving - for him to realize what he felt for her. It had been a bittersweet, agonizing moment when he'd realized what he'd truly lost.

His first love.

There was no other explanation, no other reason why it would have hurt so much and yet held so many good memories he couldn't be mad at her after all this time. She was his weakness, had always been the chink in his armor and still was. He'd gone to great lengths to make her smile through their years together and even now he wanted nothing more than to make things right, to banish the sorrow he heard in her voice.

To bring back his Beautiful.

Except she didn't believe she was his anymore.

"You really are an idiot."

Tommy's head snapped up. "What?"

Jason was standing off to the side, his arms folded acorss his chest, leaning against a nearby tree. "I said, you really are an idiot."

Unable to help himself, Tommy laughed. "No kidding."

Arching his eyebrows, Jason straightened. "You're admitting it?"

"What, did I steal all your fun?"

"No, it just normally takes you longer to admit when you've done something stupid."

Tommy sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. "Which part are you talking about, bro?" Kat couldn't have had the time to spill everything so Jason must have followed them - and overhead everything. "The part where I called her or the part where I made her cry?"

"Neither."

That surprised him. "Really?"

Jason nodded. "I was thinking about the part where you hung up the phone."

"You didn't hear her, bro; you didn't listen to her break." Tommy's throat closed, but he pushed past it. "She didn't want to talk to me."

"Then why'd she call?"

"Ernie just handed the phone over, I doubt-"

"Come off it, Tommy." Shaking his head, Jason settled himself on the bench next to his best pal, his expression searching. "Not even you are that dense. Kimberly could have simply hung up, I mean, after everything that's happened, hanging up the phone on you should be child's play."

"She's too polite-"

"To an ex she dumped by Letter?"

Tommy winced, looking away. Despite the deliberately blunt way Jason had put it, he had a point; if Kimberly hadn't wanted to talk to him, she could have simply let him speak with dead air. He'd have never have known it was Kim and he doubted Ernie would have betrayed her trust. The old softie had always been protective of her.

"Bro, how do you know if she wanted to talk or not? It's not like you guys had a marathon conversation."

"It was... very uncomfortable."

"Did you expect it to be something else?" Jason's amusement was tempered with consideration. Tommy wouldn't appreciate being laughed at. "You can't expect to just jump in and pick up where you left off. Kim's been gone for over a year; both of you have changed."

"And not for the better, is that it?"

"I didn't say that." Leaning back on the bench, Jason stretched his legs out before him. "I'm the last person to be giving relationship advice, but I know Kimberly and I know you. Kimberly would never have sent the message she did at the end of her floor routine is she didn't mean it."

"Did everyone understand that?" Growling his displeasure, a part of Tommy couldn't help but be amused.

"Only those of us closest to Kim. Who do you think she practiced on?"

Conceding the point, Tommy shook his head. "Even if she meant it, what did she mean _by_ it, bro? That's what's killing me here."

Jason shook his head. "I may know Kimberly, but that doesn't mean I understand her thought process. Besides, if I did know and I told you, it'd kill your excuse to call her again."

"Again? Just how much did you hear?"

"Enough." The mischievous smile on Jason's face was amused. "I didn't think Kat could kick your ass, but she sure let you have it."

"She does that on occasion," Tommy hung his head. "I guess I need it, huh?"

"No kidding. You could have been nicer though."

"I can't help how I feel, Jason."

"And neither can she. Neither can Kim." Jason placed a comforting hand on Tommy's shoulder. "Bro, I heard what you told Kat and... I think you're wrong."

"You'll have to be more specific; I've been wrong a lot lately."

"At least you can admit it."

"One of the less glorified aspects of being a Ranger – you have to know your limits." Tommy straightened fractionally and stared out across the park, memories of both good times and bad ever present. They'd always spent a lot of time at the Park – in Ranger form or otherwise. "And this is mine, bro. I can't do it. I can't pretend that knowing Kimberly's got a new flame isn't eating away at my insides. I can't pretend to be her friend, to listen to her cry over some wackjob she met only weeks ago; I can't pretend to be happy she thinks she belongs with him and not me."

"Are you so sure there _is_ another guy?"

"Aren't you?"

Jason didn't dignify his quiet question with an answer – it was absurd. "Why are you so sure, Tommy?"

That was a good question. Just why was he? Because it had been from Kim – the Kim who'd been the Pink Ranger and never let him down before? Or because she'd written him and never lied? No – that wasn't right. She _had_ lied – but she's always done it to protect him. Was that what Jason meant? Or was it just he was so positive because... – he swallowed hard, pushing through the thought - because he'd always felt she deserved better? Was that it? No matter what he'd done, no matter how many good deeds he did as a good Ranger, part of him was always counting the good against the bad – and the bad always won.

Was it any surprise Kimberly had left him?

Sadly, he couldn't say he'd been overly surprised. Shocked, yes – it had come out of nowhere – but a part of him had always expected this someday. Kimberly would leave him because it was what he deserved. It was Karma. He'd _deserved_ to lose her after everything he'd done. It wasn't because Kimberly, or because the letter had come from her, but because he'd always believed she'd find someone better. Anyone was better than what he'd been and struggled daily to outpace.

No one knew the darkness within him as well as Kimberly – it only followed that one day she'd leave to prevent being tainted by it.

"She could always do better."

Jason stared at him – gawked really – speechless, looking a little like a fish out of water. Not that Tommy noticed.

"I never deserved her, bro. Kimberly was always too good, too pure – I knew it and yet I pretended I deserved her anyway. I always knew she could do better than me, that she would someday leave me for someone who was worthy of her. It doesn't matter anymore, I-"

"Bullshit!"

Jason's sudden exclamation stopped him cold.

"That's a load and you know it, Tommy. Sitting here trying to justify giving up on her when you got that letter isn't going to change the fact that you and Kim had something special. You'd have to be blind not to see it. She _couldn't_ do better than you, don't you get it? Not because you're a black belt in a dozen karate types, or because you're a Power Ranger – but because of how you treated her, man! No one – and I mean _no one_ – ever treated her like you did. You made her feel special because that's how you viewed her."

"She is special."

"Then don't feed me that load of crap, okay?"

"What does it matter anyway?" Tommy settled back against the bench, slumping downwards. "Kim's in Florida with some guy..."

"Some guy who's not you?"

"Yeah." Tommy shook his head. "No. That's not it."

"Give it up bro. Ever since you got her letter you've been heartbroken – seeing her little performance and message gave you hope. Whatever Kim said on the phone obviously didn't help."

"She didn't _say_ anything..."

"Then what'd she do?"

Tommy swallowed hard. "She cried when I told her I missed her."

Jason smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. "You really _are_ an idiot, bro."

"You keep saying that."

"And it's as true now as it was five minutes ago. Don't you get it?"

"Get what?"

"Even you can't be that dense." Jason looked him full in the face. "Girl's don't burst randomly into tears when their ex-boyfriends tell them they miss them, Tommy. Most of them, Kimberly included, would probably laugh in their face."

"So?"

"If they'd laugh and Kim did the opposite..." Tommy started at him blankly. Shaking his head, Jason rose to his feet. "Figure it out for yourself, bro... just don't take too long - it's getting late in Florida and Kim won't wait by the phone all night."

"Why would she wait?"

"For the love of-" Jason turned back exasperated. "Women don't tell their exes they miss them Tommy, they don't cry when they're told they're missed too and they _don't_ call in the middle of a crowded restaurant just to cry on their shoulder."

"Then why..." Tommy stopped, staring at Jason and his eyes suddenly widened as he _got_ what Jason was trying to tell him. When the denial left his lips, it was barely a breath. "No way."

Jason arched his eyebrows as if to ask him why he was still sitting on the bench.

Scrambling to his feet, Tommy was off like a shot – heading for home instead of the Youth Center – the revelation running circles in his head. Jason has opened Pandora's Box and the possibilities of why Kimberly had broken down spiraled through his mind as he ran.

There was no way. No way. But, with Kimberly's own denial of anything wrong between her and her Florida flame, he wondered how he could have been so blind. He had told her he'd missed her and used his special nickname for her. The only reason Kimberly – the Kimberly he'd known so well and missed – would have done so was for one reason and one reason only.

She'd missed hearing it.

Not just hearing it, but hearing it from _him; w_hich in turn - if one followed the logic of the thought through - meant she missed him. How he'd misinterpreted it as anything else he didn't know. All he knew was that he had to get to a phone and quick.

His Beautiful was waiting.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Author's Note:**__ The last installment of Clipped. The poem is mine; please don't use it without permission._

_----------_

**Clipped Wings - Part 4**

The phone lay on the floor, the dial tone beeping incessantly in the background as Kimberly tilted her head back against the wall, the sound pulsing in tandem with the tears that slid down her cheeks. The ache in her throat had expanded into her chest, a dull, throbbing pain that permeated her being as she struggled to find some semblance of composure.

Tommy had hung up on her.

Unaware that as she sat there listening to the buzzing noise, her friends were rallying to her defense in Angel Grove and giving Tommy what fore, she hugged her knees to her chest. It felt as if her heart was lurching against her rib cage in a sudden bid for freedom... and she wished she could give it. Some part of her brain truly believed that anything would have been better than dealing with his rejection.

Reaching out to him had been difficult - agonizing in fact - and more so than she'd expected it to be. Not because reaching for him had ever been a problem - Tommy was and always had been her White Knight - but because of what she'd done to him and the resulting silence, taking that first step back had been more difficult than expected.

Stumbling and falling because he hadn't been there to catch her was devastating.

It was the sound of her teammates returning to her dorm that brought her tear streaked face up and snapped her from the melancholy that gripped her. Pushing to her feet, she collected the phone with a careful movement and hung it back in its cradle. Turning away, her gaze dropped to the piles of messages strewn across the table, Tommy's sitting by itself in front of the chair she'd been using.

The sound of footsteps approaching jarred her into action. Grabbing his message, she left the mess and darted from the kitchen, ducking into her room and closing the door carefully. A split second later had her opening the door and hanging the "do not disturb" sign on the handle before closing it once more.

Her gaze traveled around the room - the spares, white washed walls, the small single bunk and worn carpet underfoot and over to the night stand, and the picture she refused, even now, to relinquish. It was an image of the original six Ranger - dressed down - while hanging out at the park. Trini was deep in discussion with Billy, both completely oblivious to the fact the picture was being taken. Zach was in the middle of dropping a glass of ice water over Jason's head next to them and Tommy...

Reaching out she traced the oval of his face with her index finger, wishing skin, not cool glass, was there to greet her. She and Tommy in the picture were together - like usual - except it was a rare moment that the picture taker had captured. Tommy has his back against the tree, and she'd been leaning against his chest - except their heads were turned towards one another and their smiles were intimate.

A moment for just the two of them amid the chaos of their daily lives.

She still couldn't believe that Skull had been the one to take the picture - a fluke for one of their classes - and, Skull being Skull, had given it to her when she'd asked. Not that asking had been necessary - it wasn't a picture Skull had been inclined to keep. The bright side of the whole situation had been Skull backing off and giving her and Tommy the space to simply be together. That the picture had been taken less than a week before Coach Schmidt's offer for her to come and train in Florida made it all that much more special.

Turning away, she settled on the edge of her bed, swiping the back of her hand across her eyes in an attempt to stem the tears and regain her composure. It was a futile gesture.

Kimberly curled up on her bunk, hugging the bear Tommy had brought when she'd been in the hospital before leaving Angel Grove. It was worn and well loved. If she was teased for having a teddy bear she didn't care; it was her last and best connection to him and one she was unwilling to give up. Tightly embracing the stuff toy, she buried her face in his fur and inhaled.

It still smelled faintly of Tommy's cologne - and she ensured it stayed that way after buying a small bottle when she'd moved away - the scent torturing her senses with memories. Tommi-bear offered no sage words of wisdom, but he was her confidant and one true friend; he never judged. Not that he could, but he was truly reminiscent of what she'd surrendered to chase rainbows.

Exhaustion settled in, wrapping her in its foggy tendrils as she drifted off to sleep...

_Mist encircled Kimberly's legs, darkness and light flicking quickly back and forth between the spectrums, lending the illusion of movement and motion. Slow motion, but motion, and colors began to intersperse the light. _

_Red. _

_Blue. _

_Yellow. _

_Green. _

_Pink. _

_Faces flickered in and out of her consciousness, some in Ranger uniforms, some not. Some she knew intimately, other who were little more than strangers. Almost all of them had their mouths open, as if trying to tell her something. Some simply looked sad, others desperate - she didn't understand._

_"Hello?"_

_There was silence to her call, the flickering increasing in speed as the mist whirled up, surrounding her knees and then her waist, tightening in a surprising move so that she could barely breath. Kimberly began to struggle against the links, the faces of her friends - current and former Rangers - flickering in an increased speed, still trying to tell her something._

_"I don't understand!"_

_A loud _swoosh_ made her duck instinctively and she overbalanced, hitting the hard ground with a painful thud as the mist suddenly disappeared. Completely clarity encompassed her for a moment as she was bathed in a pink and white light, the crane who'd made her duck hovering gracefully in the air above her._

_The bird looked sad, almost worn - the way she felt._

_With a flash of pink feathering, the majestic looking creature looked left, then right and let out a mournful call as the white light faded, leaving only a pulsing pink. The cry was chilling, reaching into the very depths of Kimberly's soul and resonating painfully in her heart. She knew that sound; she felt it intimately - like an extension of her own sorrows. _

_With a sudden shriek, the crane suddenly turned on her tail and vanished. Kimberly closed her eyes, dropping her head down to rest it against the hard surface on which she lay. She knew what the crane had been searching for; she knew because she was searching for the same thing. _

_The Falcon._

_A gentle, soft and furry paw touched her hand, and her eyes shot open. Blinking with disbelief, Kimberly stared at her teddy bear. The little white creation was offering it hand, a smile on its stitched face. He petted her hand again and then stood on its stubby little legs. The confident way the bear held himself was what had her reaching for him. Her hand slid into his, engulfing the soft paw in her grip._

_With surprising strength she was pulled to her feet and Tommi-bear held tightly as he drew her onward, into the swirling unknown..._

A knock on her door and a soft voice calling her name woke her.

"_Kim_?"

Disoriented and sore, she lifted her head to find she lay curled in the center of her bed, clutching Tommi-bear in a tight, desperate grip. Her arms were numb from the force, even in sleep, she'd been exerting on the stuffed animal. For some reason she didn't yet recall beyond her dream, she'd been clinging to it like a life-line... and then reality hit her with the force of a freight train.

Her performance.

Tommy's message.

Their brief talk.

Her dream.

The knock came again.

_"Kim?"_

"Ye-?" Her voice broke, the tightness from her crying bout having made it difficult to speak. She had to clear her throat and take a deep breath to ease the ache in her chest before she tried again. "Yeah?"

_"Are you okay?" _ It was Mia again and the concern in her voice was telling. _"Can I come in?"_

"I'd rather you didn't."

Mia didn't pay her any attention as she opened the door and stuck her head inside. One look at Kimberly's pale face and the grip she had on the stuffed animal had her stepping around the obstacle and closing it behind her. In moments, she was at Kim's side and was pulling Kimberly into a hug. "What happened?"

"He doesn't want me back." Kimberly's broken admission was punctuated by soft, gut wrenching sobs.

"Kim..."

Kimberly related the fiasco of her phone call. First at getting Tommy's answering machine and then their brief and silted conversation while he'd been at the Juice bar all resulting in Tommy hanging up on her when she'd begun to cry. It hadn't taken long to speak with him, just as it didn't take long to relate what had happened.

"I should have taken coach up on the offer for the Olympic team," Kim burst out bitterly between sobs, anger mingling with regret. "It's what Tommy wants for me anyway."

Mia was suspiciously silent as she continued to hug Kim and stroke her hair.

"Mia?" Kimberly pulled away, dashing her hands at her eyes to wipe away her tears with an angry gesture. "Don't you think that's what I should have done?"

"No."

Guilt clung to Mia's features, shadowed, but present and Kimberly frowned. "Why not?"

With a sigh, Mia pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket and offered it to Kimberly. "Because I think you have it wrong."

"He hung up on me!" The words were more vehement now than desolate and Kimberly ignored the outstretched form. "Tommy's never hung up on me."

"Maybe he didn't understand why you were crying. You said he asked about the guy you left him for and how he was treating you."

"So?"

"Maybe he thought you'd lied to him about it; that something really was wrong but you didn't want to tell him."

"Tommy knows I would never-"

"Or," Mia broke in, not allowing Kim to finish. "Maybe he doesn't know. Tommy's not a mind reader, Kim and you told me yourself he's dense as a brick. It's entirely _possible_ he _doesn't_ know."

"I-" Kimberly stopped, taking a deep breath as she struggled to reign in her temper, still ignoring the outstretched sheet. "Tommy knows me, Mia - better than anyone; there's no _way_ he would have hung up on me if he thought I needed him. He's always…" Faltering, she fell silent as she considered what she'd been about to say.

_He's always been there when I needed him._

But that wasn't exactly the truth.

Tommy had taken her letter at face value, given her the space she'd asked for and never presumed to step in - not even when things in her life had continued to crumble. Losing the Rangers had been hard, harder than anything she'd ever had to give up, but her friends were still with her. Or so they'd claimed. One by one the letters trickled off, eventually ceasing completely as they were thrown into a new battle with new villains.

They were busy, too busy for her - and that included Tommy. It's what she'd see at Christmas and New Years. It's what she'd heard about while she'd been back home - but that wasn't the only thing they'd talked about. It was simply the most common topic. Rangers stuck together no matter if they were active or not and she knew Tommy had been relieved he could still confide in her about his status as the Leader of the Rangers.

The Leader.

It was yet another reason she'd had to give him up. While she was in Florida, Tommy couldn't afford the distraction of worrying about her. Less and less she'd felt comfortable confiding in him via letter and slowly, gradually, those letters had ceased any kind of frequency. It had hurt, but she'd forced herself to be understanding about it. Tommy was out saving the world; she was only following her dream. The welfare of the planet had to come before she did. Like Zordon had said; once a Ranger, always a Ranger. And it took a Ranger - former or active - to understand the demands on a Ranger's time.

Tommy's free time was preciously minor and she knew for a fact he spent as much of it as possible working on his martial arts; it was what he did. They'd only been able to spend so much time together when they'd both been active Rangers because they frequented the same places - and they made the time. She'd watch him practice just as he'd be there to watch her.

"Kim?" Mia waved the folded piece of paper in front of her eyes.

Kimberly swallowed hard and considered what Mia had just told her - conceding the fact she was right. Tommy, for all his strengths, _was_ as dense as a brick. He probably didn't know because she'd never told him; she'd never admitted to being scared or to her lies - could he forgive her if she did. Would he want to?

"Kim?"

Kimberly rubbed her hands over her face. "I've made a mess of this whole thing, haven't I?"

"How so?"

"I've just been assuming all along that Tommy would understand whatever I was trying to tell him because he'd been so close to me before - except he's only got half the story." Looking up at her friend, Kimberly's eyes had dried, but they were still puffy and red. "He doesn't know I lied to him about meeting someone new."

"Then why'd he leave you this?" Mia wiggled the paper again.

"Leave me... what are you talking about?"

"Tommy called while you were sleeping, Kim." Kimberly's eyes widened but Mia continued. "I was able to talk to him before anyone realized who he was; I said it was my brother. He sounds like a real sweetheart."

"W.. what did he have to say?"

"A lot of stuff I didn't understand about a couple people you know - Katherine and Jason - and their pastime of kicking his ass."

Kimberly giggled. "That sounds like Jase, but I can't really see Kat..." she paused and considered it, reviewing what she knew about the current Pink Ranger. "Hmm well, maybe, depending on the circumstance."

"Whatever. Anyway, he said I was to leave you this very specific message. He made me write it down and read it back to him word for word."

Staring at the piece of paper in Mia's fingers, Kimberly's heart clenched in her chest. "Is it a message I'm going to want to hear?"

Mia shrugged. "I don't understand it - something to do with cranes and falcons and winds. He said you'd get it - just like you did the last one. Here - take it."

With a careful movement, Kimberly plucked the paper from Mia's outstretched hand - and her friend made to leave. "You're not staying?"

Shaking her head, Mia smiled. "I'm not supposed to. I gave Tommy my word I'd let you read it alone. Oh, and he said you can call him at any time after you read it; he'll be waiting by the phone all night - at home this time - for you to call."

Jaw dropping, Kimberly watched as Mia departed with a wink and a wave, leaving her alone with the piece of folded paper. Call him again? To be fair, he'd called her twice now, reaching out to her as she'd done to him - he was reaching _back_ for her... it was a good sign, wasn't it?

Chewing on her lower lip, her fingers began to tremble as her eyes dropped to the paper. Carefully, so not to tear it, Kimberly began unfolding it. It unfolded twice, revealing Mia's neat, block printing running a part of the way down the page. Scanning it, she realize it was a poem and then did a double take as she realized what she was reading.

Lyrics; _her_ lyrics to the song she'd written for Tommy.

-

_Down the road, we never know,_

_What life may have in store,_

_Winds of change will rearrange,_

_Our lives more than before..._

_But you'll never stand alone, my friend,_

_Memories will never die,_

_In our hearts, they'll always live,_

_And never say... goodbye..._

_-  
_

She smiled, shaking her head sadly; she _had_ said goodbye - and never should have. Skimming lower, she found the note Mia had so faithfully taken.

-

_Clipped Wings_

-

_Pink and White once shared the skies_

_Laughing and playing with their carefree cries_

_She watched his back, and he watched hers_

_Wing in wing through the atmospheres_

-

_She watched him fall and caught him close_

_Never judging, never critically verbose_

_Supportive of his flaws, _

_Accepting of his scars_

-

_Together they grew in skill and strength_

_And evil proceeded to go to any length _

_To tear asunder a love so true;_

_To turn the Falcon from White to blue_

-

_And then the crane flew off, to chase a dream_

_Exploring winds and causing change_

_She left behind the Falcon soaring_

_Keep watch and ever guarding_

-

_The winds died out, the winter raged_

_The crane's return did not emerge_

_Clipped and bare are the Falcon's wings_

_Awaiting a renewal only the crane can bring_

-

_Come back to me, my crane of winds_

_No grudges held for past sins_

_Mend my heart and wings together_

_Return to me and we'll make it better_

-

_Give me back my strength of flight_

_And soar with me from this long night_

_Fly with me in skies of blue_

_For through it all - I've missed you_

-

Below it was written his phone number - like she didn't have it already - and the words "Call me" next to his name. Mia's hand writing, but all Tommy. A droplet slid down her cheek to splatter on the page and Kimberly realized it wasn't the first tear she'd shed while reading the poem.

He _did_ understand!

Tommi-bear was pulled close and hugged tightly as she buried her face in the soft fur of his head. Her delighted laughter that was half a sob of relief, was muffled by the thick fabric. Tommy understood. He understood what she'd been reaching for when she's reached for him during Pan Globals. He understood that she wanted to come home - he was _inviting_ her to come home; to come back to _him_.

Her future was suddenly one of options. Kimberly could stay in a place where the dream she'd once placed such a priority on had no chance of materializing or she could go home. She could stay in a place where her passion had been turned from fun into work, a chore to be mastered and perfected not enjoyed - or she could go back. Zordon had said she would return some day to resume the mantle of a Ranger. Kimberly doubted she would return as a Ranger no matter how much she wanted to. They had a team, a team that worked well and was a cohesive unit; one that she wouldn't dream of splitting for anything.

But she _would_ dream of being a part of that group on the peripheral - and perhaps involved in some way. It wasn't the same as being a Ranger, but it was more than she currently had.

Butterflies roiled through her stomach as she realized what she was contemplating, her fingers absently stroking the teddy bear for reassurance. Returning to her old life; a life where her mother now lived in France and the family she'd been staying with no longer existed in North America. She was thinking about returning to Angel Grove, a city she knew better than the back of her hand with no money, no job, no place to live and two months left in her high school career.

Somehow, she would make it work; being with Tommy and her friends was more important than chasing some childhood dream in favor of a dream that was potentially her future. Tommy's poem showed he still cared - he'd never done _anything_ like that before. Already a melody was swirling around in her head to go with them, but it was indistinct and she'd have time on the return trip to Angel Grove to pen it down.

Pushing up from her bunk, Kimberly stuck her head out the door, Tommi-bear still firmly clutched in one hand. The echo of her dream didn't escape her. Was this what it had meant? She hoped so. Creeping into the deserted dorm's hallway, she kept her steps light as she moved towards the kitchen. The rest of the girls were asleep or faint light showed behind their doors. She had no intention of having an audience and tomorrow's 04:00 wakeup call had ensured they hit the sack early and would stay there.

Creeping into the dimly lit kitchen, her eyes went to the digital clock on the stove - it was just before twenty four hundred hours. Almost midnight and the dorm was silent; perfect. Reaching for the receiver, she eased it off the hook and checked around her once more.

Silence.

Tucking Tommi-bear under one arm, Kimberly dialed Tommy's number by heart, barely needing to see the numbers as her fingers danced over them eagerly - almost lovingly. She'd missed calling him, she realized; missed talking to him on a regular basis… missed everything about being with him and in Angel Grove.

Florida and Coach Schmidt had taught her incredible abilities, but so had being a Power Ranger - and there was a time when one had to put one's self first. Her coach wasn't happy she'd failed to medal - so what? She wasn't staying anyway and she'd deliberately taken herself out of the running so Tommy wouldn't misinterpret her message; that she wanted him more than any old hunk of metal. That her dream had been to compete, not to contend - and now that it was over, she wanted what her heart yearned for.

Her place back in his arms.

The phone connected on the other end almost immediately, even before the first ring had ended.

"_Oliver residence; Tommy speaking._"

She took a deep breath. "Hello Tommy."

"_Kim!_" He sounded so delighted, so breathlessly excited it made her heart flip flop in her chest.

"I hope I didn't wake your parents." Kimberly shifted Tommi-bear into her arms as she cradled the phone against her shoulder. "I wouldn't have called so late - except Mia told me you wanted me to call."

"_It might be late there, Kim, but here's it's still early. My folks are still out - having a late dinner._"

"Oh." She chewed her lip, turning her back to the wall and sliding down to sit on the floor with her knees bent to her chest, Tommi-bear tucked in close. ""I um... didn't know if I should call."

"_I'm glad you did. I wanted to apologize for earlier._"

"For what?"

"_I hung up on you; I never should have done that._" Tommy sounded so contrite it made her heart melt. He'd always hated causing her pain and _always_ struggled to make it up to her after the fact. "_Can you talk right now?_"

"I should probably be sleeping but I..." she hesitated before forging ahead in a rush. "I got your message and I just couldn't wait until morning - I never would have slept if I had and-"

"_Kim_."

"Sorry." She blushed even though he couldn't see her. "The poem is beautiful."

"_Beautiful is as beautiful does. It's not hard to write with you as my inspiration._"

"What do you mean?"

"_Umm, I uh,_" he coughed and she could almost see _him _blushing and looking away uncomfortably. _"I got top marks in English for that poem - the first five stanzas anyway._"

"And the last two?"

"_I added tonight for you. I miss you, Beautiful; and I think you miss me too - more than you've said._"

"Oh Tommy..." tears welled in her eyes again and she sniffled, hugging the bear tightly to her chest even as she wished it was him. "I wouldn't know where to begin."

"_Then I will._" His assertive manner made her long for his presence though she had no trouble envisioning him as he paced back and forth across his living room as a way to expend nervous energy. "_I should have asked you what you wanted when you told me you'd been offered a chance to train as an Olympian, Kim. I didn't because I remember you once telling me it'd be really cool to be chosen to go to such a prestigious event - but I didn't remember at the time what you hadn't said. So I'm asking now. Do you _want_ to go to the Olympics as a gymnast?_"

"No." There was no hesitation in her answer and it was delivered with quiet conviction. "When I first got here, I would have told you otherwise but that was before..."

"_Before what?_"

Kimberly swallowed hard; it was an opening that was too good to be true and one she wasn't going to let pass her by. "Before everything changed. Before I went through the withdrawal of being a Ranger; before you and I started this long distance nightmare; before gymnastics became a chore; before I sacrificed my future dream for my selfish childhood dream-"

"_Your dream wasn't selfish._"

"Yes it was, Tommy." Kimberly had a near strangle hold on Tommi-bear, the plush toy a practical pancake between her knees and chest. "Because I sacrificed the dream of _us_ for a dream of me."

"_I don't understand, Kim. It's what you wanted..._"

"I lied." Her voice broke with the confession. "There's never been anyone else." There was silence on the other end for a long, long moment and for one, heart stopping second she'd thought he'd hung up again. "Tommy? Say something - please?"

"_Why?_"

Perhaps it was the way he said it; or the way that question reverberated around in her chest, knocking down the walls she'd built about her heart; or the heart wrenching agony he was able to put into it - whatever it was, Kimberly knew what he was asking. She understood he didn't want to know why he should speak, but wanted, instead, an explanation as to why she'd felt it necessary to lie to him. Why had she turned her back on _him_ when all he'd ever done was support her and care about her.

Closing her eyes, she tilted her head back to the wall behind her as tears streaked silently down her cheeks. Her tortured whisper barely carried through the receiver. "I was afraid."

"_Of what - me?_"

"Not you, Tommy - never you. I just... I saw the way Kat looks at you - at us. I know how other women see you even if you don't and I kept thinking of what would happen if you found someone else - and knowing you had every right to when I couldn't be there for you. It wasn't fair. I... care about you so much I couldn't bear the thought of keeping you tied to me - of having you miss out on a part of life that was passing you by when I'm here and you're there. It wasn't fair to you."

"_Why didn't you ask me first, Kim? Why didn't you give me the choice? We were in our relationship together; didn't you think I deserved a say in it?_"

"You d-did," her voice broke again as she struggled to keep herself from breaking into sobs. He sounded so tortured, so agonized - a reflection of her own pain. She'd never considered he'd felt a fraction of what she had and the revelation that she'd been wrong was devastating. "I k-know I w-was wrong; that I h-handled it b-badly."

"_You broke my heart, Beautiful._"

His words broke _her_ all over again. It was worse than she'd thought, worse than she'd ever dreamed. Tommy had never said he more than cared for her, but she'd suspected more; she'd suspected because she'd felt more. She'd loved him so much and been so passionately innocent in her belief that if she'd let him go, he'd come back to her; that he'd fight for her if she was what - who - he wanted. "Why d-didn't you f-fight for me, Tommy? Why didn't y-you come after m-me?"

"_You said you were happy, that you'd found the person you thought you belonged with,_" She could hear him taking a deep breath and didn't fail to note the ragged edge to it - the one that showed he wasn't as calm as he was trying to make her believe. "_I only ever wanted for you to be happy, Kim - I loved you enough to let you go._"

"But not enough to chase after me," anger flooded her system, chasing away the ache of lost time. "Damn you, Tommy Oliver - I _wanted_ you to come after me, to challenge me and my supposed new man; I only ever wanted _you_!"

"_I'm not a mind reader, Kimberly_," Tommy shot back sharply. "_You _asked_ me to let you go. You even described you new guy; how was I to know-_"

"-that I was describing you?" Kimberly broke in on a hiss, shocking him completely and knowing it. "The only thing I did right in that letter was describe all the qualities that drew me to you in the first place and if you'd stop wallowing in that well of regret you just might be able to see the great guy I gave my heart to!"

Silence came back from the other end, but venting felt wonderful and Kimberly wasn't done with him yet.

"I know what you went through at the beginning; I was there. I saw it. I remember ever day, every minute, every word you ever spoke to me. I remember because it _mattered_, because I liked you; because I wanted you to like me." Her chest was heaving and at some point in her tirade Kimberly had regained her feet to pace back and forth as far as the cord would go. Tommi-bear lay, forgotten, at the base of the fridge as she whirled around once more. "I know how hard it's been for you to move beyond that, but even though your friends forgave you, you never forgave yourself. That's why you didn't fight for me, Tommy; that's why you let me go without so much as a whisper or a peep. You think I can do better - but I can't. You can't do better when you already have the best - you can only do worse."

"_You're right_."

"I - what?" Tommy's calm acceptance completely surprised her and caught her off balance, taking the wind out of her sails. "What do you mean I'm right?"

"_Exactly what it means. Jason pretty much said the same thing and you're both right. I've never felt I deserved you mostly because of what happened in the beginning. You never gave up on me, not once; you were always there when I needed you and you let me go when you had to. I took your unconditional acceptance for granted; I took _you_ for granted - and I never understood what I felt for you until you were gone. Even then, Kim, I felt like I'd... like I'd _earned_ the pain of it. Like it was atonement for past sins and that losing you was inevitable - one way or another._"

"Why, because you were once brainwashed?" Crouching to pick up Tommi-bear, Kimberly resumed her tight hug on him as she continued to pace. "Tommy, no one can hold you responsible for anything you did then; especially not me."

"_I almost killed the team; I almost killed _you,_ Kim. That's not an easy thing to get over._"

"Then don't."

"_I thought you just said..._"

At that moment, Kimberly realized she and Tommy were having a _normal_ conversation. Sure, she was whispering to avoid waking her teammates, but nothing about _this_ conversation seemed stilted in the least. Like something had shifted between when she'd spoken with him this afternoon and now; like something had shifted back to its proper place.

"We got over it; forgiving yourself isn't easy so don't. Use it as a source of strength instead of weakness. Kat was brainwashed too, but I never saw her beating herself up about it nearly as much as you do."

"_Remind me never to fight with Pinks again; you two fight dirty._"

Laughter bubbled out before she could stop it and she slapped her hand over her lips, looking back towards the hallway that led towards the rooms. Holding her breath she listened - and was greeted with blessed silence. Exhaling, relieved, Kimberly turned her attention back to her conversation. "Kat tore strips off you, did she?"

"_She and Jason took their turns. They make a lethal team._"

"And a cute couple." Kimberly's grin was audible. "But she's not going to let circumstance and chance rule her, Tommy; neither should you."

"_So I hear. I never would have called you otherwise._"

"Why _did_ you call, Tommy?"

"_To get some overdue answers. Jason said some things that got me thinking._"

"Wait wait wait... _Jason_ said? Not Kat or Adam or even Rocky?"

"_He knows you better than anyone, Kim; it can't be _that_ strange to hear he had something helpful to say._"

She conceded the point with a soft snort. "Okay, I'll bite. What did Jason say that got you to call me back?"

"_Something about girlfriends and how they react to their exes. You were my first friend in Angel Grove, my first girlfriend - and now my fist ex. Jason offered some sage words of advice from his experience and I wanted to know if it was true._"

"Which part?"

"_Your reaction for starters. Why'd you tell me you missed me at the end of your routine at Pan Globals, Kim?_"

"Because it's true." She put her back to the wall under the phone again and slid down towards the floor, hugging Tommi-bear. "I wouldn't have worked so hard to get your attention and keep it with my leotard and everything if I didn't."

"_You didn't even know if I was watching._"

"You promised me you would be," her throat almost closed but she forged ahead. "I was counting on you to remember that and keep it." And he had; the proof was in his voice on the other end of the line. "I'd lost my drive, Tommy. Gymnastics isn't fun anymore; it hasn't been for a couple of months now. It's work - hard work with little to no support - and until I hit on the routines I used for Pan Globals, I'd considered quitting and moving to France with mom."

"_I don't understand. Competing at Pan Globals was your dream - and you love gymnastics; you still do. It was in every line of your body when you were on the floor._

"My dream was to compete, not to contend - and I realized when I came up with those routines why gymnastics wasn't any fun anymore."

"_What changed?_"

"I did," the admission was tough for her, but she managed to get it out. "About three months ago Coach Schmidt noticed something was wrong and we talked about it. He knew I hadn't heard from you guys in a long time and I... I told him the truth. That I... I missed everything that had gotten me there; I missed my friends, I missed my family; I missed _you_ Tommy. I didn't feel supported as I had in Angel Grove, I felt disconnected from it - so Coach suggested I do something about it. To not only remind myself of that connection but to reestablish it. I was allowed to create my own routines - with his input - for the competition; that's what you saw at Pan Globals."

"_They were incredible routines._"

"Thanks. They're the most challenging and rewarding sets I've worked on for a long time - and they reminded me of why I'd come out here in the first place. Of why I love gymnastics and of just who it was that supported my dream when I was willing to give up on it." She forced herself to smile through her tears. "You. I never would have achieved this dream without your support."

"_You had the drive to do it without me, Beautiful - you just needed a kick in the pants to get started."_

They shared a laugh, Kimberly's gaze darting back towards the hallway. Her smile slowly died as uncertainty crept into her hushed tone. "Now that I've lived my dream, I... I don't know what comes next, Tommy. All I know is that I don't want to be here anymore."

"_And that's the reason you cried when I told you I missed you too?_"

"Part of it," she admitted softly; it felt right to tell him. "I never expected you would ever tell me that again - and not couple with your nickname for me."

Tommy was silent and she could hear his footfalls as he paced from carpet to wooden floor and back. He was struggling with something and she didn't know if she should ask and risk breaking the fragile balance that had been established between them - or simply let him be. He spared her the necessity, taking a deep breath before dropping the bombshell she'd _never_ expected to hear from his lips after she'd sent him her letter.

"_Would you... Do you want to come home, Kim?_"

_YES!_ her heart was screaming - but Kimberly bit her lip on the automatic answer. Home to her wasn't what home was to everyone else. Probably to no one else. She'd come to the realization while in Florida that home wasn't where her mother and Pierre were; it was where her friends were... where _Tommy_ was. Instead she carefully thought of her own answer before replying - and no in the manner she wanted to.

"I... don't have a home to come back to." Knowing it wasn't the answer he'd been expecting to hear - no matter how much her heart jumped at the thought of what exactly he was asking - she deliberately misinterpreted it... and gave him an out if he wanted it. "My mom's in France, Tommy; I've never been there."

"_And you call me dense._" His wry exasperation would have made her laugh if the atmosphere hadn't been so tense. "_You _know_ what I mean._"

"Obviously not; explain it to me."

"_Do you want you come back to Angel Grove? Here with your friends; you know, home?_"

"After everything that's happened? After everything I've done to you?" Her fingers tightened on the receiver, her heart thudding painfully in her chest. "Would I be welcome?"

"_With open arms, Beautiful. Katherine's missed you and Tanya's dying to meet the original Pink._"

"And you?"

"_Me?_"

Tommy paused, as if mulling it over. Her breath caught in her throat as she waited, barely breathing, for his response. It wasn't long in coming and when it did, it was everything she was hoping for and more. An acknowledgement of what she'd done, of where they'd been and of what they had to look forward to.

"_If you'd asked me when shortly after receiving your letter, Kim, I'd have told you no. But... like you I've changed and not having you here has forced me to grow. I've looked at my life before you, while you were here and now and... I've come to a lot of conclusions. Before you, I was lonely without realizing it; and when we meant, just being around you ensured I was never lonely. When you left, you took a part of me with you I hadn't realized was yours - and then you broke it." He paused and then seemed to throw caution to the wind. "I'd like my best girl back; you know, the one who accepts me unconditionally even though I've got the sense of a brick sometimes? The one that has a sweet smile, angelic voice and writes me songs when I'm down to cheer me up._"

"Sounds like a large order to fill; she might not be up to it."

"_Never. No matter the changes you've been through, Kim, you're heart's always been the biggest part of you. You made a mistake. You hurt me by leaving; heal me by coming home. Even if we can't go back to what we used to be, we were friends first. Even as friends you were - you _are_ important to me._"

"I..."

"_I'm grounded without you, Beautiful. Give me back my wings and come fly with me... please?_"

His plea was the final straw - the one that decided things. Somehow she was going back to Angel Grove. She had no money, no transportation and no license even if she had - and she was dreaming and impossible dream. The realization was staggering. "I... I want to, Tommy, but I don't... have a way to get back. I guess I could walk... or hitch hike-"

"_Not a chance; I'm coming to get you. Go pack._"

What he was suggesting took a moment to register - and it was as thrilling as it was terrifying. "Tommy, you can't-"

"_I can and I will; I'm _not_ letting you change your mind."_

"The price is too high."

"_And it's one I'm willing to pay. Ten minutes, Kim. Be ready._"

"Tommy!" She snapped her lips shut, biting off the shout to hiss desperately. "People will notice if I suddenly just disappear!"

"_Leave a note; Mia will understand._"

He had a point - and Tommy was using his leadership tone; she wasn't going to win this one. Caving gracefully, an anticipatory smile curved her lips. "Ten minutes?"

"_Nine. I'll see you then._"

There was a sound, as if he was making to hang up. "Tommy?"

"_Yeah?_"

"Thank you."

"_See you soon, Beautiful. Don't keep me waiting._"

"Never again," Kimberly heard the line at the other end click and pulled the receiver away from her ear, hugging it to her chest. _Never again._ Seconds later she was on her feet and making her way back towards her room. She had eight minutes to pack and write a note for Mia before Tommy teleported in to whisk her away; she intended to use every one of them.

----------

"Kimberly?" Mia stuck her head in Kimberly's room the next morning with a frown, her hair tied back in a ponytail and ready for practice. "Kim? You here?"

The room was neat, the bed made - but Kimberly's things were gone. The only things that remained was a piece of paper sitting on the plump little pillow.

"_Mia,_

_Gone to give the Falcon back his wings and learn to fly again. I'll call you when I'm settled. Thanks for everything; wish me luck._

_The Crane_."

Mia stared at the short note, a smile slowly creeping across her face. Folding it carefully, she slipped it into her waist band and left the room, closing the door behind her. Coach Schmidt would be disappointed with Kimberly's choice, but not surprised. Kimberly had always been meant to fly; she'd simply needed to spread her wings and realize where she belonged.

And Kimberly belonged in Angel Grove - with Tommy.

_fin_

**Author's Note:** Before anyone asks for a continuation I have this to say; Not Happening.

However, if you'd like to try and continue this yourself, to expand on it - even to just write something small like their reunion; "Does Tommy show up in Ranger gear?" "Does Tommy lose his powers because of it?" "How does the gang welcome Kim back?" etc etc, go for it. Just drop me a line when you do since I'd love to read it ;)

Oh – and Tommy's Poem; I agree with the statement that he wouldn't normally write poetry, but as someone who has the nickname "the grieving poet" I can totally understand how adversity can bring out a need for an outlet. One of the reasons I made it a school project is because I can't see Tommy writing anything without that push – but once pushed, I can see it being tough to stop the words. Hope that explains it.

Thanks for reading guys, you've been a fantastic audience!


End file.
